Man buys Expos for 5 Bucks [Archive]

GM24

06-09-2004, 03:20 PM

NATIONAL LEAGUE (2004)

EAST W L PCT GB AVG HR SB ERA
Philadelphia 94 68 .580 -- .272 204 87 4.20
Florida 81 81 .500 13.0 .270 138 160 4.10
New York 76 86 .469 18.0 .251 171 90 4.12
Atlanta 76 86 .469 18.0 .264 169 90 4.48
Montreal 72 90 .444 22.0 .266 143 121 4.85

We finished 12th in the League in ERA and 15th in HR. Despite a .266BA (the league average) our production (.732) was 28 points below the league trend.

The Phillies are the team to beat in this divison, and were able to keep most of their team intact depsite falling into debt. Among key players they lost are 2B Placido Polanco, who hit .315 with 18 HR and 18SB, and played excellent defense. They also lost their starting SS Jimmy Rollins and 3 RPs, including Luis Ayala, who had a 3.19 ERA in 59.1 IP.

The Marlins turned a modest profit of $1M, but failed to re-sign phenom RF Miguel Cabrera, who I might try to pick up. They retain much of the same team they had last year, and they are capable of improving upon their 81 wins next year.

The Mets are a team I fear. It looks like they will sign all-star caliber players SS Nomar Garciaparra and 3B Hank Blalock. That would give them a fearful offense that already includes slugger C Mike Piazza, who hit 42 HR last season. However the Mets lacka dominant SP staff; former aces Tom Glavine and Al Leiter are on the decline, and will need some help in teh back end of their bullpen.

Nothing went right for the Braves in 2004. In a year where they needed peak performances from their key players to win, those players had off years. LF Chipper Jones had foot problems and missed 59 games and saw his production drop for the 4th straight year. Closer John Smoltz, a consistent pitcher throughout his career, had a 5.75 (!) ERA and 7 losses. SP Mike Hampton (11-10, 4.93) had a down year as well. The Braves turned a $9M profit and are actively pursuing a few second tier players in OF Richard Hidalgo, who is coming off an off-year himself, and 3B Morgan Ensberg. But it wont be enough to bring this Braves team back to glory.

You guys can write your own little summary on the Expos if you want.

NL League Leaders

Batting Average
SS Loretta (SDP) .337
LF Pujols (STL) .331
2B Castillo (FLA) .330
...
(9th) CF Roberts .314

HR
C Greene (!) (COL) 49
RF Walker (COL) 47
CF Wilson (COL) 45
...
Team Leader Everett 30

Wins
SP Nomo (LAD) 17
SP Clemens (HOU) 16
SP Pettitte (HOU) 16
...
Team Leader Ohka 12
ERA
SP Schimdt (SFG) 2.74
SP Beckett (FLA) 2.78
SP Leiter (NYM) 2.83
...
Team Leader Milton 4.31

What a pickup CF Dave Roberts turned out to be. Roberts not only hit .314 but stole 46 bases and scored 91 runs. The trade didnt turn out to bad for the Dodgers either, as Matt Cepicky hit .263 with 12 HR in 84 games, and signed a 2 year extension at $2.6M a year. The Dodgers are high on Cepicky, he had a .585 slugging pct in AAA and has contact and power ratings in the 80s.

At least one of the two SPs I traded for produced. SP Eric Milton had a great 2nd half to finish 10-10 with a 4.31 ERA. Milton is a good #2 or 3 starter. Its even better that he's signed thru 2008 for $1.45M a year. I made out like a bandit in this trade. Overpaid(8.3M/yr) SP Livan Hernandez had a down year (9-10, 5.43), altho he did pitch well in Game 3 of the divisonal series vs. the Dodgers. (The Phillies lost the series 3-2). And the Phillies couldnt resign CF Endy Chavez and RP Luis Ayala.

I still have faith that SP Ramon Ortiz can pitch better than his dismal 2004 campaign, but he does not have the talent that Milton posesses. He is an average SP.

Awards

AMERICAN LEAGUE (2004)

Cy Young Bartolo Colon (ANA)
Player of the Year: Manny Ramirez (BOS)
Rookie Of The Year: Michael Ryan (MIN)

NATIONAL LEAGUE (2004)

Cy Young Billy Wagner (PHI)
Player of the Year: Shawn Green (LAD)
Rookie Of The Year: Shane Victorino (SDP)
...
Gold Glove (2B): Placido Polanco (PHI)

Closer Billy Wagner is a dominant pitcher. At one point my scouts had his overall rating at 102. Its suprises me that he won it in a bit off an off year. Wagner went 8-7 with a 3.22 ERA, with 36 SV and 7 BS. But I suppose it makes him valuable that he pitched in so many close games, 91 of them. He also helped the Phillies make the playoffs, even though he didnt pitch in them.

Boy will the Phillies miss Polanco. He had a helluva year.

MY RF Frederick Holmberg got snubbed for the ROY. Holmberg played in 157 games, hit .287 with 41 doubles and 13 HR and stoel 10 bases and made 8 assists. San Diego CF Shane Victorino hit .260 in 134 games, with 35 doubles and 7 HR, 23 SB, and 8 assists. He did only make 1 error though. And he is 10 years younger than Holmberg, who I signed out of FA before the year began.

DIVISION PLAYOFFS
Yankees defeat Angels, 3-2
Red Sox defeat Royals, 3-2
Giants defeat Astros, 3-2
Dodgers defeat Phillies, 3-2

LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Yankees defeat Red Sox, 4-0
Dodgers defeat Giants, 4-0

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Yankees defeat Dodgers, 4-2

The Yankees swept the Red Sox in the ALCS in 4 fairly close games, and beat the Dodgers on Halloween in a 5-0 game at Yankee Stadium, with Mike Mussina throwing a 5 hit shutout. What a classic matchup.

So there's your end of season recap. Now the Expos will wheel and deal and ready themselves for the Minor League draft.

GM24

06-09-2004, 05:30 PM

November 10th 2004

Signed FA 2B Angel Santos to a 2 year deal worth $390K per year

Santos, 24, hit .279 in 179 AAA at-bats, stealing 5 bases. current rating of 61 but a peak of 79. He will need to improve his mediocre fielding and range in AAA.

Signed FA RF Miguel Cabrera to a 4 year deal worth $5.5M per year.

Cabrera, 20, didnt put up the best numbers in a half season in the bigs (.240 7HR 38RBI) but played very well in AAA, slugging nearly .600 down there. My scouts are high on his power (85) his arm (94) and range (86). And his peak is estimated at 99. He has 30+ HR power now, and will continue to improve. This was something I could not pass up.

Now for the huge trade:

NOVEMBER 10, 2004
Indians receive Carl Everett (CF), Dave Roberts (CF), Orlando Cabrera (SS), Zach Day (SP), Chad Cordero (RP), T.J. Tucker (SP), Joe Vitiello (LF)

and Joey Eischen (RP)
Expos receive Victor Martinez (C), Jhonny Peralta (SS) and Tim Laker (C)

Like I said, huge.

You already know about 32 year old Carl Everett, who made the all-star team as the starting CF. He hit .303 with 30 homers and 103 RBIs. But his contract expires next year. So he had to go. He will bat 3rd for the Indians.

CF Dave Roberts had a career year as you know, hitting .314 with 46 SB., and led the majors in triples with 14 (!). He will ride the pine with the Indians until his contract runs out at the end of the year.

SS Orlando Cabrera is a very fine shortstop who will be missed. Cabrera hit .284 with 25 SB and led the NL in doubles with 52. Cabrera is also a slick fielder, making 5.5 plays a game. Cabrera, 29, makes 6.1M a year through 2008

SP Zach Day had a fine season with the Expos despite going 5-12.
Day started 28 games with the team but only managed 5 1/2 innings a start; he does not have the endurance. Day was rejuvenated after the trade and his ratings shot up, his peak is now an 88. His contract expires at the end of the year.

RP Cordero is an above average RP, he came on strong during the end of the year and finished with a 4.28 ERA. Cordero, 22, has a peak rating of 78 and his contract expires at the end of the year as well.

RP Tucker is a below average RP and he had a terrible year, finishing with an ERA over 6 and an OBA of .310 in 75.1 IP with the Expos.

1B/LF Joe Vitello is a free swingin power hitter; last season he hit 14 HR and struck out 72 times in 295 ABs. Best suited for 1B becuase of his lack of arm strength, Vitello will earn $1.25M a year for 4 more seasons.

Now for what I got.

C Victor Martinez, 25, could become one of the premier catchers in baseball. He spent most of last season in AAA, where he managed .264 in 193 ABs, but he is a future .300 hitter nonetheless. He is also a GG caliber fielder (88arm 94rg) and has a peak of 93, 23 points higher than his current rating. Martinez needs a little more seasoning in AAA but will be a huge factor for the Expos as soon as next year.

SS Jhonny Peralta is a pretty decent prospect, although his ratings took a slight hit after coming over. Peralta hit .271 in AAA, stealing 7 bases in 113 games. He has a strong arm and excellent range. I may convert Peralta to a 3B so that he can play all IF positions (and ask for less money after 2007). If he doesnt pan out. Peralta is 21 years old and hit .227 in 77 big league games.

C Tim Laker, 34, is a servicable backup catcher. A career backup, Laker has complied just 587 ABs in 13 years. A career .235 hitter, he is signed through 2006.

Umm... I might have gotten shafted. But I would view this as more of a salary dump than anything else. My payroll was just $27.0M after this trade, which enabled me to sign RF Cabrera. Victor Martinez is gonna be a real good hitter and fielder though, and its hard to find catchers. And Peralta had an 80 peak before coming over, now its a 74. He is a great fielder too though. Almost everyone that I traded has their contract expiring after this year anyway. So I got something.

I really need RPs now.

GM24

06-09-2004, 09:47 PM

November 17th 2004

Signed SS Enrique Cruz to a 2 year deal worth $500,000 a year

Cruz, 22, has decent skills but doesnt have the arm strength (71) or range (69) I look for in a SS. But he still has room to improve. He will battle SS Peralta for a starting job, or spend a year in AAA.

Signed SP Ben Howard to a 2 year deal worth $330,000 a year

Howard, 25, had mixed results last season with the Padres last year, giving up 10 HR and walking 15 in 34.2 IP, but giving up just 31 hits and striking out 24. Somehow he wound up with a 3.63 ERA. Howard has OK skills now but has room to improve. He could pitch in an Expos uniform down the line. For now he'll stick it out in AAA.

December 8th 2004

Signed SS Khalil Greene to a 2 year deal worth $520K a year

Greene is a young shortstop with an estimated peak of 76, 14 points higher than his current skill level. The 24 year old hit .268 in AAA with 6 HR in 250 ABs. Khalil's contact power and speed are in the low 70s, so he'll need to work on that before a promotion to the bigs. Fielding wise he has an average arm and great range but is error prone at this point in his career.

December 15th 2004

Signed 1B Ken Harvey to a 5 year deal worth $1.7M a year

Ken Harvey is a very good hitter. In 102ABs last year he hit .353 with 4 HRs and an OBP of over 400. Harvey, 26, has yet to reach his peak. He could win a batting title sometime in his career.

January 12th 2005

Signed CF Jeff Duncan to a 3 year deal worth $300K a year

Duncan, 25, spent the entire season on the Mets and Red Sox bench, and only had 19 at bats. Duncan is known for his excellent speed, range, and fielding. His hitting skills are in the low 70s. Duncan has a chance to become an everyday CF. If not, he at least has skills that would compliment any teams bench.

JANUARY 12, 2005
Mets receive Tony Batista (3B) and John Patterson (SP)
Expos receive Orber Moreno (RP)

The Expos paired off payroll by sending Tony Batista packing, and received a RP who could be very good in the near future.

3B Tony Batista had a good year with the Expos last season, hitting .265 with 27 homeruns and 91 RBI. Batista, 30, is capable of playing all IF positions, although he is a sub-par fielder. He has a 75 overall rating and will play 2nd base for the Mets and bat 8th.

RP John Patterson is 26 and has average skills and can pitch in long relief. He has the potential to turn into a good long man, possibly more.

RP Orber Moreno has average pitching skills (75-74-77), and put up good numbers in AAA last year. His peak of 76 has not been reached yet, and Expos scouts are confident (they hope) he can become a good short reliever.

Man, trading on Mogul is tough. I should have been able to trade Patterson straight up for Moreno. Oh well. Maybe Batista has poor value. He is signed for $3.5M until he is 36.

3B Fernando Tatis, who has struggled since coming to Montreal, will replace Batista.

The rookie draft is coming up. I'm picking either 6th or 7th, so I should be able to get a SP who can play now. In the second round I hope to pick up a RP who can play now, altho thats kind of hopeful. From then on I'll pick teh best avaliable player... in the 6th round I'll need to draft a 5th OF to round out my bench.

GM24

06-09-2004, 11:08 PM

*Rookies.ini values were adjusted, they are set at 85-90 for each position.*

1st Round, 6th Pick: SP Rylance 75 Ovr/87 Pk

This pick is a no-brainer. 23 year old SP Tony Rylance (78/94/77/71) has ratings similar to SP Eric Milton. He pitched well in AA, allowing just 173 hits and 36 walks in 182.1 IP. He has had some problems with the long ball, allowing 27 of them, but with an 87 peak should become a future ace.

2nd Round, 36th Pick: RP Taureck 68 Ovr/76 Pk

RP Phil Taureck was the best avaliable RP according to my scouts. While the 24 year old wont be able to contribute right away, he should become a good short releiver with work on his 71 movement.

3rd Round, 66th Pick: OF Yamamoto 61 Ovr/68 Pk

OF Hiroshi Yamamoto may not have star potential, he is already a solid player. His only rating below 70 in fact is his speed, a 63. He will be the 5th OF on the Expos. He is capable of being a reliable backup right now, and could develop into a good pinch hitter so long as he plays enough to improve.

4th Round, 96th Pick: RP Grove 55 Ovr/71 Pk

RP Tom Grove is a real project. He gets excellent velocity on his pitches but has bad control (68) and gets no movement (55) on his pitches. Grove is a long shot but if things go right for him he could develop into a good pitcher.

5th Round, 126th Pick: 1B Toby Calande 52 Ovr/68 Pk

1B Toby Calande has hitting skills in the upper 60s and has plenty of room to improve upon that. He has hit well in 4 years in AA and managed .300 last season. If given enough time the 24 year old could develop into a pinch hitter

6th Round, 156th Pick: RP Molander 55 Ovr/ 64 Pk

RP Marv Molander has steady ratings right now (34/70/69/69) and his numbers in AA show steady improvement. There is a chance Molander could end up as a middle releiver on a weaker team somewhere down the road.

GM24

06-10-2004, 12:21 AM

I found out that RF Miguel Cabrera can also be 3B Miguel Cabrera. So 3B Fernando Tatis became expendable. I also didnt like the fact that OF Brad Wilkerson makes $1.6M a year to pinch hit. Even though he might have gotten 100+ AB, half of those in key situations. So I put them on a trading block, and Colorado offered me a nice prospect plus a million for em.

JANUARY 24, 2005
Rockies receive Brad Wilkerson (LF) and Fernando Tatis (3B)
Expos receive Rene Reyes (RF)
Expos receive $1M

LF Brad Wilkerson is an average offensive player who strikes out alot. He is remarkably consistent; last year he hit .265 with 16 HR, similar numbers to his 2003 and 2002 campagains. The 26 year old free swinger should put up good numbers in Coors Field's friendly confines. He will start out in leftfield and bat 7th.

3B Fernando Tatis is another free swinger, but with worse results. As a backup the last two years he has hit below the Mendoza line. He probably wont get much of a chance to play in Colorado.

In the deal I received RF Rene Reyes. Reyes is an average offensive player right now, but his peak is 18 points away, so in time he will develop into a great one. My only area of concern is his 62 fielding, but he has a good arm and should be able to improve to an adequate fielder. I would like him to start for my team next year to replace Holmberg.

Before I acquired Reyes his peak was 87, now it is a more modest 80. I have too much trust in my C+ scouting. Still, Reyes will be a good player.

January 31 2005
Signed RP Kevin Ohme to a 2 year deal worth $390K a year

RP Ohme, 32, has above average skills. He didnt pitch all that well in AAA but had 4.1 scoreless innings in 2 MLB apperances last year. He will be given a chance to pitch in middle relief.

Signed CF Jason Lane to a 1 year deal worth $1.2M

CF Jason Lane was best available player on the free agent market. He has a 74 OVR rating, average hitting skills and good speed. A victim of the split stat bug, Lane hit .293 and stole 4 bases in 240 AB. I'm not a big fan of Lane, but I had a hole to fill. He will start the season hitting leadoff.

GM24

06-10-2004, 11:48 AM

March 1st

Signed SP Jimmy Gobble to a 3 year deal worth $1.6M a year.

SP Gobble has average skills now but should develop in to a good, solid pitcher. The 22 year old did very well in 20 starts with KC, going 8-5 with a 4.46 ERA in a divison that hits for high AVG. He will start 5th for the Pirates in 2005, which allows my 1st round pick SP Tony Rylance to get at least a year in AAA.

Signed RP Jimmy Cerda to a 4 year deal worth $1.15M a year.

New Expos setup man Jimmy Cerda was a geat pick up. He has very good ratings and stats. My scouts say he has an 85 control, power, and movement, and a peak of 85 (current rating 75). As a Royal last year Cerda had a 3.67 ERA in 88 IP, allowing just 70 hits. He did walk 54 last year, but I am confident that Cerda will work out the chinks and have 4 great seasons in Montreal.

Signed OF Andy Krasny to a 2 year deal worth $370K a year

Krasny, 39, started playing professional baseball just 3 years ago. He had a breakthrough season in AA last season, hitting .284. Krasny is not a good hitter but has very good speed, fielding and range. He could be useful as a pinch runner or defensive replacement. Krasny will be the 2nd backup OF becuase of Wilkerson's departure.

Well, time to start spring training, and then post opening day rosters

GM24

06-10-2004, 01:27 PM

Last First Pos G AVG AB 2B HR BB K SB CS R RBI SLG OBP
Starting Lineup
Lane Jason LF 130 0.293 198 11 3 21 42 4 2 28 41 0.414 0.36
Holmbrg Fred RF 157 0.287 602 41 13 46 84 10 9 70 76 0.444 0.341
Vidro Jose 2B 142 0.288 553 29 19 69 59 0 1 84 85 0.458 0.368
Cabrera Miguel 3B 66 0.24 258 10 7 31 54 2 1 33 38 0.391 0.331
Harvey Ken 1B 35 0.353 102 5 4 10 21 2 0 18 17 0.52 0.416
Diaz Einar C 108 0.265 392 17 6 25 29 5 1 36 44 0.36 0.321
Peralta Jhonny SS AAA 113 0.271 280 12 3 37 59 7 2
Duncan Jeff CF 20 0.263 19 1 0 5 5 1 0 6 1 0.316 0.417
Bench
Caroll Jamey IF AAA 94 0.294 201 13 4 20 36 4 1
Guzman Edwards 3B 23 0.15 20 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 1 0.15 0.227
Fox Andy IF 76 0.269 156 11 0 14 32 10 2 22 15 0.391 0.337
Laker Tim C 44 0.299 67 4 4 4 14 1 1 11 11 0.567 0.347
Yamamo Hiroshi OF (Rting) 75 Hlth 77 Cntact 72 Pow 75 Eye 63 Spd

Last First IP ERA G GS W L SV K BB
Rotation
Armas Tony 206.1 4.62 31 31 8 12 0 163 90
Milton Eric 194.1 4.31 29 28 10 10 0 126 55
Ohka Tomo 185.1 4.42 29 29 12 11 0 113 59
Ortiz Ramon 169.1 5.74 29 28 7 10 0 134 73
Gobble Jimmy 127 4.46 20 20 8 5 0 72 52

Bullpen
Biddle Rocky 76 4.38 68 0 3 5 26 37 51
Cerda Jaime 88.1 3.67 61 0 3 6 0 52 54
Manon Julio 29.1 3.68 22 0 1 1 0 23 14
Eischen Joey 51.1 6.49 46 1 4 4 14 50 26
Ohme Kevin 28 Endurance, 74 Control, 74 Power, 77 Movement
Vargas Claudio 115.2 5.06 29 14 5 9 0 84 39

GM24

06-10-2004, 04:53 PM

Batting/Lineup
The cash strapped Expos overhauled their lineup, trading off their higher paid athletes in favor of young, raw players with upside. The Expos brought in some less expensive help and put together a decent lineup.
New acqusition LF Jason Lane will lead off, replacing Dave Roberts. Lane isnt as fast as Roberts, but he is good contact hitter who can also hit for some pop.
2B Jose Vidro is the best pure contact hitter on the team, before hitting .288 last season he had hit .300 or better each year from 1999-2003.
Hitting behind him will be 20 year old Miguel Cabrera. He is only an average hitter right now but in time he should develop into something special.
Batting 5th will be Ken Harvey. Harvey is a good hitter, good but not great. He wont be able to replace Carl Everett's productivity but should hit about. 280 with 25HR.
The bottom of the order are weak hitters. C Einar Diaz hit .265 last season but had a dismal .360 SLG pct. SS Jhonny Peralta won the starting SS job for his defense, certainly not for his hitting. In 2003 he hit .227 in a half season with the Indians. Peralta had a mildly successful AAA campaign, but will probably hit at a .240 clip. Jeff Duncan is a career .203 hitter but has shown some aptitude at the plate, according to scouts. He could hit .250 with 10 HR.

Mogul Batting Rating: 64, 4th in Divison
Mogul Lineup Rating: 80, 3rd in Divison

Defense:
The Expos have a marquee fielder in C Einar Diaz, who has a great arm. New SS Jhonny Peralta has a 90 rated range and will make plenty of big plays. New CF Jeff Duncan covers alot of ground with his excellent range and has yet to make an error in his career.
Some problem positions for the Expos include 1B. Ken Harvey is prone to teh occasional error. The Expos hope that 3B Miguel Cabrera can learn his position quickly. He has a strong arm, but a wild one.

Mogul Defense rating: 88, 2nd in divison

Pitching:
The top four on the Expos are no strangers to the game, each having at least 700 innings under their belt. They may not be starts, but they are consistent. Ramon Ortiz hopes to rebound after a disapointing season. While he isnt a spectacular pitcher he has above average skills and is capable of a better year in 2005. New acquisition SP Jimmy Gobble had an impressive 2004 with the Royals and could develop into a very nice pitcher.

The relief core is unspectacular at best. Rocky Biddle is not a true closer, he at least has experience. FA signing Jamie Cerda wasnt as good as advertised by scouts but is a good pitcher nonetheless, just not closer material. Joey Eischen will be given a chance to return to his 2003 form. He has the best pure skills out of any of my releivers, but at 33 isnt getting any younger. If Eischen performs at his peak, he will be given the oppurtunity to return to a setup or closer role.

Mogul Rotation rating: 68, 4rd in divison
Mogul Bullpen rating: 50, last in divison

Mogul Overall rating: 63, 4th in divison

AAA:
The Expos have been stocking up on prospects for the past year. Notable prospects include C Victor Martinez, who will hit for compete for batting titles and Gold Gloves for years to come. LF Juan Rivera has been improving nicely, he can already hit on teh major league level and has the arm and range to boot. He just needs to work on improving his fielding. SS Khalil Greene has a way to go but he will be a future starter down the line. He too needs to work on fielding.
As far as pitching is concerned, Tony Rylance was not as good as advertised. He only has a peak of 80. But he looks like a future control artist, already he has a 94 control. He will be a solid #2 or 3 starter in the near future. Phil Taureck looks like a very good selection. He isnt overpowering enough to be a closer but will makea good setup man. Suprisingly, FA signee Ben Howard has a high upside and will make a fine starter someday. Orber Moreno has a high peak as well. He will enjoy a fine career as a RP.

Mogul AAA Overall: 88, 2nd in divison

Divison Outlook:
The Braves and Mets look to compete for the divison crown this upcoming season.
The Braves are the favorite. They have a very deep lineup with solid players at every position. LF Chipper Jones should be able to return to all-star form after a mildly disapointing season. He'll get to see alot better pitches, as 3B Morgan Ensberg was brought in to hit behind him. In the past 2 season Ensberg has averaged .290 and 25 HR seasons. There is power up and down this lineup. Even the 6-8 hitters had 20+ HR season. I'll be lucky if the Expos 6-8 hitters total that amount.

The Braves pitching struggled last year but should return to form. SP John Thomson, who has excellent ratings, is poised for a breakout year. Closer John Smoltz is vital to the teams success and should return to his dominant form. His contract expires after the season however.

This year the divison will likely belong to the Braves. They could manage 95-100 wins.
Meanwhile my team will likely dwell in the cellar. The Marlins are tied for the worst ranked team in the league however. They are starting a CF and a RF they drafted in January. Which is too bad, even with average players at those poistions they are a .500 team.

The Expos are a worse team than last year. They werent built all that well when I took over, but it will take awhile for me to strip it down and build it back up again. I hope to finish 4th. So enough talk, lets kick some Marlin tail.

GM24

06-10-2004, 05:55 PM

Game 1:

Tony Armas Jr. allows 4 runs in the first innings and 2 more in the 2nd as the Marlins cruise to a 7-3 victory. Marlins 1st round pick CF Corey Barujan had 3 RBI. Joey Eischen pitched 2 shutout innings for teh Expos, which is encouraging. Jhonny Peralta complained of a sore tricep before the game, and will be held out for the series. Andy Fox will bat 7th and play short.

Game 2:

3B Ed Guzman pinch hit for SP Tomo Ohka with the bases drunk and singled home 2 runs, and the Expos jumped out to a 3 run lead. In the 8th, Fred Holmberg hit the 1st homerun of the Expos young season to put the Expos up by 4 late. Eischen pitches a scoreless 9th and the Expos win this one, 10-4.

Game 3:

The Expos collected 10 hits in the first 5 innings, but had 7 runs total with help from Jose Vidro (4-5, HR) and Jose Cabrera (2-5, HR) Milton had pitched 8 scoreless innigs before running out of gas in the 9th. Rocky Biddle came on to pitch a third of an inning to get the save.

Can we eliminate players stealing 3rd with 2 out? Maybe we need a steal 3rd slider just for me.

Expos win the first series, 2-1. Nice to see we can beat the Marlins. Rest of the month simmed in the next post.

GM24

06-11-2004, 12:19 AM

April 10, 2005
RP Kevin Ohme suffers sever elbow tendonitis. Out four months.

RP Jose Mercedes will be called up to replace him. Mercedes isnt a terrible pitcher. He made 73 apperances in long relief last season, compiling a 5.22 ERA.

This is mind boggling. In his first 40 plate apperances, Ken Harvey struck out 18 TIMES!

The Phillies are so poor they dont have a 5th starter. Well, RP Hector Mercado is what they have. He has an endurance of 18, and gets about 4 innings a start. At least they arent charging 29 bucks a ticket anymore.

April 19, 2005
C Einar Diaz suffers a torn knee ligament, out 6 months.
Signed FA C Trey Lunsford to a 2 year deal worth $370,000

Another week another injury. That will end Diaz's stint in an Expos uniform. His contract expires at the end of the year and I dont plan on signing him back.

Due to the injury I sign free agent catcher Trey Lunsford. Lunsford actually has decent upside, a 74 peak. But the skills arent there now. Lunsford, 24, is a capable hitter but has a weak arm and allows too many passed balls. He will backup C Tim Laker.

(Speaking of Laker, the LA Lakers look terrible right now)

Unless I decide to bring C Victor Martinez up early. He can contribute now, but I'd like to keep Martinez in the minors as long as possible because so much of his peak is unfufilled. But so that he can get as much experience as possible I will start him after the minor league season is over.

We sustained a 9 game losing streak playing the Phillies, Mets, and Phillies again. Ken Harvey snapped that streak with a walkoff double off Phillies releiver Tim Worrell. Joey Eischen got the win. In 8 apperances he hadnt given up a run, and he was promoted to closer.

2 days later Brian Lawerence threw a one-hitter against les Expos, and we lost 1-0

We finish the month 7-17. Team ERA is 5.18, good for last in the NL. Our bullpen has lost 7 of our 17 games. 3B Miguel Cabrera hit 4 HR in his first 35 ABs but only 1 in his last 50. He has already made 4 errors at the hot corner but at least has demonstrated good range. After striking out 18 times in his first 40 PAs, Ken Harvey has struck out just 8 in his last 59. Jose Vidro is hitting .352, Jhonny Peralta is hitting .309 but Jason Lane has a .182 and Jeff Duncan is hitting .169. Joey Eishen has an ERA of 0 but Tony Armas Jr. has a 7.92.

But I do have some good news. I just saved a bunch of money by switching my car insurance to Geiko.

GM24

06-11-2004, 02:36 PM

This ship is sinking. The water is coming in faster than we can get it out.

I have to trade Einar Diaz. That'll save me 2 million right there. RP Kevin Ohme can go too. I have enough relievers as it is. What was I thinking?

I have 2 starting outfielders hitting under .200 right now. CF Jeff Duncan should not be starting. He has tremendous range, and never makes an error, but he's not ready.

I am 4-1 this month, and team ERA is down to 4.85. Which is cool. But I had to switch to pay TV. Which wasnt. I need fan loyalty. And I need money. And I need to win. I need money to win. I need to win for fan loyalty, which gives me more money. At least I didnt draft Darko Milicic, who just hit the side of the backboard with a fade away shot.

MAY 8, 2005
Dodgers receive Einar Diaz (C), Roy Corcoran (RP) and Orber Moreno (RP)
Expos receive Jayson Werth (RF)

C Einar Diaz is a gifted defensive catcher but will miss the next 6 months of action. The Dodgers have an average catcher behind the plate now and may try to extend Diaz's contract after teh season.

RP Roy Cocoran, 23, has average skills now but projects to be a good reliever. With some work in AAA he should find a spot on a major league roster. His contract expires at the end of the season.

I didnt want to give up RP Orber Moreno, becuase I just traded for him 5 months ago. Moreno has average pitching skills (75-74-77), and put up good numbers in AAA last year. His peak of 76 has not been reached yet.

I got a player who may start for me as early as July, if I decide to trade incumbent RF Fred Holmberg. RF Jason Werth between 78 and 85. When I traded for him, it was 88. Now that I have him, its a 75. But Werth has good skills now, I would be happy if it were 80. Werth makes excellent contact and has great speed, and a powerful throwing arm out in right. Look for him to be a key player very soon.

For once I think I got the better of the Dodgers, but I cant be too sure when dealing with the Dodgers. My old LF Roy Cocoran turned out to be a great hitter with power. He's hitting .307 in the early going. But in over 100 starts in left he hasnt made an assist.

GM24

06-11-2004, 05:28 PM

MAY 25, 2005
Twins receive Frederick Holmberg (RF) and Julio Manon (RP)
Expos receive Michael Restovich (RF)

I like this deal.

RF Fredrick Holmberg, 33, is a good player. He came out of nowhere to have a fine rookie year, hitting .287 with 13 HRs and 10SBs. This year he had shown some power with the Expos, leading the team with 7 HRs. His contract is expiring at the end of the season and he wanted about $5 million a year. He will be used as a pinch hitter and 4th OF for the Twins, who lead the AL Wildcard in the earlygoing.

RP Julio Manon has some success last season. In 29.1 IP he compiled a 3.68 ERA and struck out 23. He struggled in the early part of this season however and was sent down. Although Manon is 30 the Expos scouts feel he hasnt reached his peak. He will play in AAA for the Twins.

RF Micheal Restovich is a pretty good player. He makes excellent contact and has a good eye. He is an average fielder and has average power and speed. The 25 year old will start and bat leadoff. His contract expires but his demands are reasonable. He may be signed to an extension.

The Expos started the month of May playing very well, winning 4 of the first 6 series. But in the last week and a half the team took only 1 of 3 games from the Giants and Braves, and were swept by the Reds. But we finish the month 14-13.

Nobody is optimistic or anything. This team just doesnt have the talent to win yet. Once my young studs are ready though, then look out.

After May 30th
Team Record: 21-30
Losing Streak: 5 games
Team Batting .243, last in NL
Team ERA: 4.92, 11th in NL
HR: 46, T13th in NL
FldPct: .977, -.001 of average

Who's performing:
2B Jose Vidro: .314 5HR 21BB/18K
3B Miguel Cabrera: .271 8HR (leads team) .923 FLdPct but +4% range
C Tim Laker: .276 6HR. What a suprise.
P Jimmy Gobble 3-3 3.90 ERA .220 OBA. Good pickup, is showing improvement skill wise. Pulled Groin for 2nd straight year. Ouch
P Joey Eischen 0.70 ERA .136 OBA 8 SV. Comeback player of the year. His contract also expires at the end of the year. Not that that has anything to do with it.
P Jose Mercedes 3.38ERA, 16K in 21.1IP. Who?

Who's not:
LF Jason Lane: .194 6HR .294OBP. .963 FldPct. Shows some pop and walks, at least.
P Tomo Ohka 2-8 9.33 ERA. Demoted to Alt. Starter. Makes to much to go to AAA.
P Jamie Cerda 6.60 ERA in 30IP. Not working out thus far.

Who's turned it around
P Tony Armas Jr. 5-3 5.00 ERA. Atta be Tony
CF Jeff Duncan .240. Duncan raised his batting average 70 points in a months time. Maybe he does belong here.

GM24

06-11-2004, 06:43 PM

Imagine future HOF SP Randy Johnson in a Cincinatti Red uniform.

Hard.

The 40 year old signed a 1 year contract worth $7.6M and won 7 games coming into the June 5th game vs. the Expos. Pitching against was SP Ben Howard, who was just called up to replace Tomo Ohka in the starting rotation . Good luck Ben.

Howard didnt pitch too badly, giving up 4 runs in 7.2IP, but we only managed 1 run against Randy, who struck out 15 in 8 and two thirds. The guy still has it. We did take 2 out of 3 from the NL Central leaders though. I'm not complaining.

After that series Interleaue Play started. I hate interleague play. To me, its a novelty. At least I drew good home games. The Twins and White Sox are both winning teams.

My DH in the games Ed Guzman loves them though. His batting average this year in 91 ABs is .407, with a production of 1.080!! If this keeps up I may move Miguel Cabrera out to left and send LF Jason Taylor, who only has 3 more hits than Guzman, to the bench.

Now imagine future HOF SP Roger Clemens... in a Twins uniform? That's right, Clemens got a 1 year $8.4M from the Twins, and the team is leading their divison despite his uncharacteristically high 5.74 ERA. It was an exciting game. The game was tied 4-3 heading into the bottom of the 9th, but LaTroy Hawkins gave up a run to blow the save. In the next frame Tomo Ohka came in and allowed 3 runs in 1 inning. But then in the bottom frame we scored 3 runs right back, two of them off of pinch hitter Hiroshi Yamamoto's double. Jose Merecedes came in to pitch 2 huge innings, and then Jeff Duncan hit a 1 out triple in the 14th, and little used 5th OF Andy Krasny hit a groundball that allowed speedy Duncan enough time to score from 3rd. And the Expos won 8-7, and avoid the sweep.

June 23rd 2005:
SP Ramon Ortiz out four months with severe elbow tendonitis.

I guess this is what you get when you spend zilch on medical spending. But since Im making money now, I suppose I can raise it to 1 mil, making it 25th in the league.

But ouch. Ortiz was pitching up to expectations too (3-5, 4.54 ERA). I guess that means Tomo Ohka reclaims a spot in the rotation. Ohka has continued to be horrendous, he now has a 9.68 ERA. His replacement hasnt been much better, losing in all 4 of his starts despite a 5.33 ERA. For a team that only manages 4.29 runs per game, last in the league, I guess I shouldnt be too suprised.

You should see the numbers my lineup has. Terrible. Jose Vidro (.310) is the only player on this team that can hit. Miguel Cabrera and Ken Harvey are on pace for about 25 homeruns but are hitting .250. Four players in the lineup, including newly acquired RF Micheal Restovich, are hitting under .240.

We lose 7 of our last 8 games and June and finish the month with a 30-47 record. We stink, and our divison is good. Nobody else in it is under .500, not even the Marlins, who have gotten fantastic performances out of 3B Mike Lowell and their 1-4 starters. I'll give a more detailed midseason report in the next post.

GM24

06-12-2004, 02:57 AM

Had a four game series versus the Blue Jays, which was kinda neat. Won the series 3-1. Blue Jays managed only 5 runs in 4 games.

Imagine a Canadian World Series... I'm sure a lot of people would rather imagine a Cubs-Sox series.

SP Eric Milton (7-4, 3.21 ERA) is quietly having a fantastic year. He has great numbers across the board. If he can get a W in his next start, an all star game is in his future.

SP Jimmy Gobble isnt too far behind. He has turned alot of heads, sporting a 5 and 4 record with a 3.36 ERA.

We head into the the all-star break a bit battered. 3 players in our starting lineup were not able to play heading into the break. And SP Eric Milton strained a quad and will be unavailable to pitch in the all-star game.

At the break:
Record: 36-52, .409 WinPct, 17.5GB
Average: .248
ERA: 4.72

My lineup is terrible. How bad, you ask? Oh, you'll wish you hadnt of asked.

Last First Team G AVG HR BB K SB SLG OBP
Resto. Michael MON 42 0.265 0 27 29 1 0.347 0.37
Duncan Jeff MON 76 0.228 4 47 63 3 0.337 0.353
Vidro Jose MON 74 0.31 6 35 26 2 0.451 0.386
Cabrera Miguel MON 77 0.275 13 36 61 1 0.487 0.354
Harvey Ken MON 79 0.265 13 30 66 2 0.461 0.333
Lane Jason MON 75 0.222 10 39 52 5 0.398 0.322
Laker Tim MON 64 0.225 6 14 49 4 0.343 0.274
Peralta Jhonny MON 73 0.252 2 20 71 2 0.328 0.299

Guzman Edwards MON 61 0.368 5 6 14 1 0.571 0.404

Number 3 and 4 hitters Cabrera, Vidro, and Ed Guzman off the bench have performed well. Not so much everyone else. Pitching is much the same story. Some can pitch and pitch well, others just cant. Tony Armas Jr. (3.87) Eric Milton (3.26) Jim Gobble (3.36) Closer Joey Eischen (1.27) and new setupman Jose Mercedes (2.98) can pitch. Everyone else thats healthy has an ERA of 5.82 or higher!! Its time to make some changes.

More updates later.

GM24

06-12-2004, 07:56 PM

No Expo made the all star team. Eric Milton and Joey Eischen were alterantes though. Which is cool. If they played in New York they wouldve made the team I suspect.

The Braves have 3 all stars starting in the infield for Christ sakes! 2B Marcus Giles, SS Rafael Furcal, and new acqusistion 3B Morgan Ensberg, who is having a tremendous year (.306 21HR). CLoser John SMoltz is back in form and made the team as well. So it should be no surprise that the Braves are 53-34 and lead the 2nd place Mets by 5 games.

Speaking of the Mets, their FA acqusitions turned out to be busts, just like in real life. Hank Blalock is hitting .238, striking out 71 times already. Nomar is hitting .275. His batting average has dropped for 5 straight years not counting his injury plagued 2001 season. They have 3 all stars. Mike Piazza is one of them, he hit his 400th homerun off of my team in the last game of the year (wish I had noticed that before). The other two are RP Braden Looper and Scott Strickland, who both have ERAs over 4 and dont belong. Its that **** New York market.

Thanks to their starting pitching the Marlins are 47-41. Four of their starting pitchers have ERAs of 3.06 or lower. Wow. And only one of them, Josh Beckett (10-3, 2.98) made the team.

The cash strapped Philles have gotten tremendous performances from leadoff hitter Bobby Abreu (.352 15HR 19SB) and Jim Thome, who is on pace to match his 2004 total of 45 homeruns. But pitching has suffered, Phili's team ERA is 5.45. The Phillies have the minimum 11 pitchers, but I cant feel sorry for them becuase they didnt draft one single stinkin pitcher. The team is 42-46. Abreu was their lone all star.

As for my team, well, we're 36-52, a bit banged up, and we gotta half season agead of us. We have some really good players and some really bad ones too. We arent competing this year or even next year. But progress is being made. This thing is being built from the bottom up. And hey, the team is making money now, we have 4 million in the bank.

For the next week or so I'm going to pump up my scouting expenses, and then go out and get rid of players who have expiring contracts.

GM24

06-12-2004, 09:13 PM

LF Miguel Cabrera has been afflicted with the split stat bug. Well, at least I'll know his pre/post all-star performances.

Despite the surge in scouting spending the past two weeks, my scouts are still C+ rated. Let's be optimistic, it couldve fallen to a C.

The Mariners traded Ichiro Susuki and J.J. Putz to the Red Sox for 1B/DH David Ortiz and 4 minor leaguers. Interesting.

JULY 30, 2005
Tigers receive Joey Eischen (RP), Rocky Biddle (SP), Ramon Ortiz (SP), Bryan Hebson (RP) and Dan Smith (SP)
Expos receive Ty Kirn (CL) and Luis Toldeo (CL)

4 of the 5 players the Expos traded have contracts expiring after this year. The one who doesnt (Ramon Ortiz) is out for the rest of the year. In return the Expos get two very fine young RPs, who were the Tigers first two draft choices last year.

RP Joey Eischen commited himself to a strenuous training method in the off season, and his hard work has paid off. Eischen has saved 17 games and has a 2.28 ERA, a maretable improvement. A pitcher with good skills, Eischen, 33, will pitch in setup duty behind Tiger closer Ugueth U. Urbina.

RP Rocky Biddle, meanwhile, ate bon-bons in the off season. In 42 innings he racked up a 7.23 ERA, allowing 31 walks and 59 hits. The 27 year old will sort things out in AAA.

SP Ramon Ortiz was having a modest season before suffering severe elbow tendonitis a month ago. In 13 starts he was 3-5 with a 4.54 ERA. Ortiz, who has above average skills will figure prominently with the SP desperate Tigers in 2006.

RP Bryan Hebson is 28 years old and has average skills. He might get a little better, but he wont find a spot on the Tigers bullpen anyime soon.

RP Dan Smith had a 4.00 ERA in AAA before being given the chance to succeed in the Expos weak pen. He didnt, managing a 6.55 ERA and losing 5 games. Smith has some talent but will need some luck to find a niche in middle relief

In the trade I get the wonderfully talented RP Ty Kim. Kim has great ratings (91C/86P/77M) and will get better in time. The 21 year old was 4-4 with an ERA of 2.94. Kim is the real deal. I'm suprised the Tigers gave him up. He will close for the Expos, becuase I dont have anyone better.

RP Luis Toledo, 26, will make a great setup pitcher to Kim in the near future. Toledo can really spot his 95 mph fastball, but will need time in the minors to work on his breaking pitches, which are too hittable. I really wanted Toledo in the draft, but he was taken with the pick before me.

Now I have a young RP nucleus in place. Kim, Toledo, and my 2nd round pick Taureck will be my three muskateers some day.

I now have 4 young pitchers who will be very good some day. Tony Rylance is pitching very well in AAA (9-1 3.93ERA) and Ive been tempted to start him, he just needs a little more work of his breaking pitches. My scouts now think he has an 89 peak, which is excellent! Phil Taureck has a way to go (13 points) to reach his peak. He has average skills now, and while he will never be dominating he will be very good complimentary pitcher.

That will be the excess of my trading.

I finish July with a 13-15 record in the month and 43-62 overall, 2nd worst in the majors to San Francisco, who have too many SP having off-years to name.

I might as well sim out the rest of the year, seeing that my team isnt going anywhere.

GM24

06-14-2004, 03:04 PM

It's August 7th, I'm 4-2 this month, and I have made some lineup changes.

C/1B/3B Ed Guzman was doing so well off the bench (.326 5HR) that I had to get him into the lineup somehow. He will replace C Tim Laker. who was hitting just .232 with sub-.700 production. Guzman is a below average fielding catcher with alot less experience than Laker behind the plate, but Laker wasnt much better at C anyway.

I'm not really sure if this is a good move or not. Pitchers seemed to like Laker behind the plate. Team ERA is 4.58, better than its been in awhile. I dont know if there is any effect of experience behind the plate on pitchers performance, but this will be a good experiment to possibly find out.

LF Brad Wilkerson is hitting .295 with 30 homeruns in Colorado. Amazing what an effect Coors Field has on a player. And who did I get for this guy? Rene Reyes? He's hitting .258 in AAA. He'll be a good hitter someday, but the Rockies got off good here. Wilkerson is signed for the next 3 years at under $2mil a year.

Another former LF is starting somewhere. THe DOdgers signed Matt Cepicky to a 2 year $2.6M extension, and he's hitting .277 with 15 HRs in mid-August. However, he is a liability defensively.

August Record: 13-15
Record: 56-77
Average: .252 (.15 below average)
ERA: 4.48 (.09 below average)
HR: 105 (15th in NL)
HR Leader: Miguel Cabrera 23
ERA Leader: Jose Mercedes (3.23) Eric Milton (3.32)

Coming down the home stretch here. It will be difficult to match last year's record. I would need to finish 16-12. Three of my final five opponents are possibly playoff bound, the divison leading Braves (78-54) and Cubs (75-57) and the Wildcard leading Mets (77-55). Aside from that I have 3 games with the .500 Phillies and 7 with the Marlins. I may manage... 66 wins, which would probably make me the third worst in the NL. End of season stuff in the next post.

GM24

06-14-2004, 07:23 PM

On September 9th and 10th at the Braves, I had the lead going into the bottom frame of an extra inning game, only to lose on a walkoff hit. The next game was a win, but that game went into to extra innings too.

My bullpen is starting to grow weary. To top it off, the young new acquisitions havent played well at all. Ty Kim has a 9.32 ERA and has blown 3 saves since joining the team. Luis Toledo has allowed 8 homeruns in 16.2IP. Haggard.

September 26th, 2005
SP Tony Armas Jr. out for 295 days with torn knee ligament.

Just my luck. Tony Armas Jr. was 12-8 with a 3.67 ERA and just a .214 OBA. Well I was gonna have to trade him anyway after next season. And as far as I can tell, injuries dont effect trade value. :D

I've put my future stars into the lineup. RF Jason Werth, who hit .352 in AAA, and LF Juan Rivera who hit .330 with impressive power, will start. My 1st Round draft pick Tony Rylance went 9-2 with a 4.08 ERA and just 19 walks. He will start in tommorow's game vs. the Phillies. C Victor Martinez has been playing for two weeks, he will catch Rylance.

Well, Jayson Werth went 4 for 4, and missed the cycle. And he got a 4 year/ $3.5M a year contract. Juan Rivera went 2 for 4. Tony Rylance got his first career win at 23.

And Jose Vidro is out 4 weeks with a Wrist Stress Fracture. Ugh. At least he finished the year hitting .302.

A few days later Tomo Ohka got injured. I'm running out of pitchers here.

Crawling to the finish line, out record is 69-93, 3 wins less than last year.

Last First Team G AVG AB 2B HR BB K SB R RBI SLG OBP
Restov. Michael RF 110 0.273 444 16 4 57 81 9 70 40 0.349 0.358
Duncan Jeff CF 139 0.22 531 19 4 73 118 9 75 44 0.298 0.324
Vidro Jose 2B 137 0.302 547 31 18 64 54 2 77 90 0.468 0.378
Cabrera Miguel 3B 145 0.278 569 40 27 65 119 1 82 96 0.494 0.354
Harvey Ken 1B 125 0.277 509 26 20 39 103 2 65 86 0.454 0.331
Lane Jason LF 143 0.233 533 23 18 67 103 9 73 77 0.392 0.325
Laker Tim C 114 0.239 376 19 10 26 79 6 40 39 0.386 0.291
Peralta Jhonny SS 131 0.257 490 18 5 49 115 3 49 41 0.349 0.328
Bench
Guzman Edwards C-1B-3B 110 0.284 306 16 5 15 42 3 30 43 0.392 0.327
Lunsfo. Trey C 51 0.229 96 7 0 6 21 0 8 10 0.323 0.282
Fox Andy IF 104 0.222 216 11 3 19 51 12 30 13 0.343 0.299
Krasny Andy OF 27 0.2 75 1 1 3 7 1 7 5 0.253 0.231
Yamamo. Hiroshi OF 26 0.256 86 7 0 5 6 0 13 5 0.337 0.297
Carroll Jamey IF 61 0.28 75 8 0 10 13 0 9 12 0.387 0.372
Propsect
Martin. Victor C 19 0.263 76 1 1 7 13 0 8 7 0.342 0.333
Rivera Juan LF 7 0.321 28 1 1 3 3 0 4 9 0.464 0.387
Werth Jayson RF 7 0.393 28 4 1 5 4 0 7 3 0.786 0.485
Greene Khalil SS 28 0.286 70 1 1 5 15 2 7 11 0.4 0.329

GM24

06-14-2004, 10:17 PM

Last First Team G PCT A PO DP E RF A/G
Cabrera Miguel 3B 145 0.93 292 109 35 30 2.97 0
Duncan Jeff CF 139 0.994 0 341 0 2 2.47 0
Harvey Ken 1B 125 0.996 21 1005 113 4 8.24 0.17
Laker Tim C 114 0.984 36 689 11 12 6.46 0.35
Lane Jason LF 143 0.974 7 221 0 6 1.64 0
Peralta Jhonny SS 131 0.964 417 296 91 27 5.65 3.18
Resto. Mike RF 110 0.984 10 177 1 3 1.73 0.09
Vidro Jose 2B 137 0.991 383 282 82 6 4.9 2.8

We all love stats. I wish I knew about the code tag when I was doing my first franchise. SO much easier to output stuff, trim it with Excel, and put it in.

Last First Team IP ERA G GS W L SV K BB R/9
Armas. Tony SP1 196.1 3.67 29 29 12 8 0 136 94 11.55
Milton Eric SP2 222.2 3.6 32 32 13 10 0 153 61 10.79
Howar. Ben SP3 148.1 4.61 22 22 4 13 0 105 63 12.62
Ohka Tomo SP4 163 6.52 30 28 6 17 0 108 54 14.63
Gobble Jimmy SP5 155 3.48 23 23 7 7 0 107 67 12.25
Bullpen
Kirn Ty Closer 91 3.26 72 0 6 5 10 92 17 10.09
Merced. Jose Setup 98 3.86 63 2 2 6 3 66 46 12.4
Toldeo Luis Short 23 5.87 19 0 2 1 0 21 8 12.91
Ferrari Anthony Mid 23.2 3.42 18 1 2 1 1 14 10 12.55
Cerda Jaime Long 57 6.79 42 2 1 3 0 42 34 15.95
Vargas Claudio Alt 98.2 4.1 32 8 7 3 0 61 32 12.41
Others
Ohme Kevin *** 1.1 6.75 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 33.75
Rylanc. Tony *** 5 5.4 1 1 1 0 0 2 1 12.6

Pos Last First Age Salary Cntrct Con/End Pow/Con Spd/Vel Eye/Mov Arm Rng Fld Hlth
P Armas. Tony 25 1500000 2 76 75 80 94 74 80 77 B-
LF Cabrera Miguel 20 5500000 4 75 78 62 76 94 76 62 B
1B Calande Toby 24 300000 6 70 71 63 74 70 71 71 A-
3B Carroll Jamey 30 300000 2 75 71 76 76 75 75 76 C+
P Cerda Jaime 25 1150000 4 50 74 74 85 61 56 61 C+
SS Cruz Enrique 22 500000 2 76 70 75 69 73 70 80 C+
CF Duncan Jeff 25 300000 3 76 70 87 77 61 96 89 C+
P Ferrari Anthony 25 380000 2 50 76 74 80 68 62 74 C+
2B Fox Andy 33 510000 1 71 68 94 76 74 55 61 B
P Gobble Jimmy 22 1600000 3 74 79 76 80 62 64 74 C+
SS Greene Khalil 24 520000 2 75 76 74 71 84 88 64 C+
P Grove Tom 25 300000 6 50 68 88 61 64 56 55 C+
3B Guzman Ed 27 330000 2 77 73 65 75 69 62 74 C+
1B Harvey Ken 26 1700000 5 82 80 55 76 76 86 68 C+
P Howard Ben 25 330000 2 75 76 74 80 63 62 74 C+
P Kirn Ty 21 300000 6 50 91 86 80 62 61 60 C+
CF Krasny Andy 39 370000 2 61 63 84 68 80 79 82 A-
C Laker Tim 34 360000 2 62 74 62 68 74 68 71 C+
CF Lane Jason 27 1200000 1 75 79 84 77 61 74 74 C+
C Lunsfo. Trey 24 370000 2 77 76 70 73 60 70 65 C+
C Martin. Victor 25 300000 2 96 73 62 80 93 93 94 C+
P Merced. Jose 33 520000 2 55 75 69 80 71 68 61 C+
P Milton Eric 28 1450000 4 76 93 76 80 64 63 62 A-
P Moland. Marv 21 300000 6 50 74 69 75 65 63 75 C+
P Ohka Tomo 28 2100000 3 79 92 73 73 76 76 71 B
P Ohme Kevin 32 390000 2 50 74 74 75 61 56 74 C+
SS Peralta Jhonny 21 420000 3 69 71 70 71 85 94 76 B-
RF Restov. Michael 25 920000 2 82 75 78 79 78 75 76 C+
RF Reyes Rene 26 370000 2 75 70 76 74 86 77 62 C+
LF Rivera Juan 25 300000 2 88 85 73 77 93 87 65 C+
P Rylanc. Tony 23 300000 6 87 94 77 76 75 75 76 B+
2B Santos Angel 24 390000 2 70 71 84 71 79 69 65 C+
P Taureck Phil 24 300000 6 50 85 77 75 62 61 65 C+
P Toldeo Luis 26 300000 6 50 86 82 74 62 55 64 C+
P Vargas Claudio 25 300000 1 71 76 70 78 68 62 61 B-
2B Vidro Jose 29 4900000 6 94 78 62 89 82 85 76 A
RF Werth Jayson 24 3500000 5 92 79 88 79 89 86 80 C+
LF Yamam. Hiroshi 23 300000 6 77 70 63 75 77 71 71 B

As far as batting goes, I have most of what I want in place. Mike Restovich will a pinch hitter/runner and Jayson Werth will start in right. Jason Lane will be let go and LF Juan Rivera will play left. Tim Laker will be put back on the bench and C Victor Martinez will start. So this gives me three very capable hitters to add to my nucleus of Vidro, Cabrera, and Harvey. That leaves CF Duncan and SS Peralta. Both are very fine defensive players with excellent range. Whatever shortcomings offensively they make up with their glove. They are still young and capable of improving their offense to more respectable levels.

I do have a SS in AAA, Enrique Cruz, who hit .337 in AAA, but is just average defensively. His peak is 11 points away so he could become a good SS, possibly my future starter.

I have some defensive liablities, but nothing terrible. Ken Harvey suprised many by making just 4 errors. Miguel Cabrera struggled at times at 3rd, fielding at a .930 clip, but we've all seen worse, and he should contiunue to improve. Jason Lane had 6 errors in left and really struggled overall in his first full MLB season.

Pitching wise the team really made some strides. Tony Armas Jr., Eric Milton, and Jimmy Gobble each had great years, finishing with ERAs under 4. Ben Howard was a big suprise, despite his efforts he was 4-13. Tomo Ohka had a season to forget as you can see. He did have some good efforts though. A new closer was acquired in Ty Kirn. Ty struggled at first when he came over but settled down, saving 9 for the Expos and earning a 4.35 ERA with the team. RP Luis Toledo didnt have the same success but he is young capable of more, and will improve. Luis Mercedes had a good season but overacheived. Claudio Vargas is a good long releiver, capable of starting on some teams.

Jaime Cerda turned out not to be the next big thing. I can only hope he rebounds. I made that 4 year, $1.15M a year investment in him. Thats a big investment for someone who doesnt like to spend money on releivers.

Despite the losing season, I think we've potentally got a team here, at least for next season. I'm still looking for that ace. I dont think that Tony Rylance is ready to be that player. Yet. I made 3 million this year, and revenue was up, so I beleive I'm in order to add that much to the payroll. Either that or switch back to normal broadcast.

The Braves won 94 games and the Mets won 91. Both are in the playoffs. Its not an easy divison. We'll see how the divison shapes up, and then Ill have to decide whether to strike in the market.

GM24

06-15-2004, 03:55 PM

Fred McGriff retired two HR short of 500. And he wasnt elected into the hall of fame. :(

David Wells retired with 211 wins and 127 losses in a 20 year career.

Craig Biggio retired with 422 SB and 234 HR. And no hall.

Edgar Martinez retired as well with a career .312 average and 318 HR.

Jamie Moyer retired after 21 years in the bigs, which is too bad becuase I was looking into acquiring him in the off season.

NATIONAL LEAGUE (2005)

EAST W L PCT GB AVG HR SB ERA
Atlanta 94 68 .580 -- .269 222 97 4.35
New York 91 71 .562 3.0 .274 223 70 4.10
Philadelphia 82 80 .506 12.0 .267 177 86 5.09
Florida 73 89 .451 21.0 .250 140 108 4.06
Montreal 69 93 .426 25.0 .253 127 63 4.48

Dead last. But at least I had respectable pitching. ERA was below league average.

DIVISION PLAYOFFS
Angels defeat Indians, 3-0
Twins defeat Orioles, 3-2
Mets defeat Dodgers, 3-1
Braves defeat Cubs, 3-1

LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Twins defeat Angels, 4-3
Mets defeat Braves, 4-2

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Mets defeat Twins, 4-2

Oh great. Just what I needed. The Mets winning a World Series. Nomar Garciaparra and Hank Blalock had great years with their new team. Nomar hit .287 with 30 bombs and Hank Blalock hit .281 with 22. 1B Jason Phillips had a breakout year, hitting .362 with 38 two baggers and 30 bombs. Fourtunately, the people I traded them didnt do anything to help them. RP John Patterson only pitched 11 innings and Batista struggled, hitting .243 with only 17 homeruns, 10 less than last year. And I got RP Orber Moreno, which I traded with 2 others to the Dodgers for the spectacular RF Jayson Werth.

Well it looks like we have two very competetive teams in our divison. Which makes this all the more difficult.

Free Agents: (salaries are set at -10%)
1B Mark Teixiera wants a 5 year/$17.5M per
Rumor Mill: Mets are close
My Comments: Why? The Mets already have stellar 1B Jason Phillips. I can understand that Phillips only makes 750K next year, the last year of his contract, but wouldnt it be cheaper to just extend Phillips's contract?

LF Albert Pujols wants 7 year/$16.6 per
Rumor Mill: Twins are close
My Comments: The Twins won the pennant, won over more fans, and made 9 million dollars. And they have just a $45.6M payroll. So why not? I only hope that the Twins have the brains to put him at 3B where they need him, or move allstar Jacque Jones to RF.

CF Jim Edmonds wants a 5 year/$16.0M per
Rumor Mill: Rockies are close
Edmonds hit .303 with 48 bombs, and played wicked D as usual, although he made 10 errors. Edmonds is 34 and not in the best health, so a 5 year commitment is risky, but he sure would put up great numbers at Coors Field. He might play right field as Larry Walker isnt what he once was, and speedy Juan Pierre would man center.

SP Kevin Millwood wants a 6 year/$11.6M per
Rumor Mill: Indians are close
Kevin Millwood had his season end with the common and painful severe elbow tendonitis, but reports are that his health is fine. Millwood has been a consistent pitcher. He was 10-9 with a 3.98 ERA in an otherwise depleted Phillies staff. Cleveland made the playoffs via a wild card spot but were swept by the Angels. Millwood could help them get over the hump.

SP Brandon Webb wants a 3 year/$11.3 per
Rumor Mill: Detroit wants him
Webb struggled in 2005, allowing 5.12 earned runs per 9 innings in a losing campaign, but his 2 years before that were outstanding. Detriot only returns two starters from last year, and they both arent very good, so this is necessary. They have acquired the offense they need, a good pitching staff could well make them contenders, an impossible notion three years ago.

SP Barry Zito wants a 6 year/$10.2M per
Rumor Mill: Pirates (of all teams) are close
Barry Zito's statistics have concerned some over the past 2 years. He has allowed more hits than IP the past 2 seasons and is allowing more HRs, which could signify bad luck or a loss of movement. More troubling is that he has averaged less than 6 IP per Start the past two years. My scouts still love him though, he is rated 98 (+-8) Overall. Of course it wont matter becuase I cant sign him. If I were a big budget team I would snap him up.

Players I resigned:
LF Juan Rivera signed a 7 year/$2.8M per deal
Juan Rivera should thrive on the big league level. Already he can hit (88) hit with power (85) throw (93) and run down balls in left (87 range). Right now he is the teams 2nd best hitter to Vidro. Rivera is the type of player than can hit .300 with 30 homeruns.

C Victor Martinez agreed to a 7 year/$3.1M per deal
If Victor stays healthy he is headed to the hall. His arm and fielding are outstanding. He makes excellent contact (93) and doesnt strikeout much (90 eye). He will hit second in the lineup.

RP Anthony Ferrari agreed to a 2 year/$390K per deal
Ferrari pitched well in 24 innings of middle relief, compiling a 3.42 ERA. His other stats indicate that he got lucky, allowing 5 homeruns, but that was his rookie year. He has the skills to come close to those types of numbers.

Bought out OF Andy Krasny at $185K
Andy was 40. He was signed as a filler player, and he stunk. I assumed nobody wanted him so I ate his contract.

Granted OF Jason Lane his outright release
He wanted a one year $2.3M. Which amounts to a raise for sucking. Even if he played well I had planned to release him to make way for the young studs. Lane didnt really play that badly, he hit 18 homeruns and walked his share, but he'll have trouble finding a starting job.

SP Claudio Vargas opted for free agency
Vargas wanted some figure in the $2mil range from me from 3 years. He'll likely get that figure in free agency, he is a useful pitcher, but I cant afford to spend that kind of money on an alternate starter/long releiver.

With that, my payroll is at $38.1 million, and my expenses at $55.1 million. My revenue was $51.4M last year. So I have to air on the side of caution. But hey, if I find anyone to good to be true in FA, I'm taking him.

Only the Braves made money in my divison, so I'd expect them to be active in the FA market. The Mets lost 5 mil despite winning the World Series but I fully expect them to try to defend that crown. The Phillies are still in debt but they'll be very active next year. The Marlins lost money and arent usually active anyway.

NL Leaders:
BA
1B NYM Phillips .362
1B COL Helton .360 (MVP)
3B SDP Burroghs .342
3B STL Pujols .342

The Mets are dumb to try and replace a Batting title winner in Phillips. They only won 91 games, they have better things to spend their money on.

HR
RF CHC Sosa 53
1B CHC Lee 42
3 Tied with 41

No Rockie topped 40 homeruns, which is suprising. Former Expo (now a Rockie) Brad Wilkerson was 10th in NL with 34 HR. He probably hit .320 at Coors and .260 away from it. Atlanta 3B Morgan Ensberg came close to making the top 3 with 38 homeruns. I hate the Braves.

ERA
SP SDP Brian Lawerence 2.79
SP CHC Joel Piniero 2.83
SP CHC Mark Prior 2.91
SP CHC Kerry Wood 3.00

When is the last time we've seen 3 of 4 ERA leaders on one staff? And 2 leading HR hitters hitting back to back? How did the Braves beat this? The team is tailor made for short series. I hate the Braves.

Award time

AMERICAN LEAGUE (2005)

Cy Young Ricardo Rincon (OAK)
Player of the Year: Ken Griffey Jr. (CLE)
Rookie Of The Year: Rudy Miller (CLE)

NATIONAL LEAGUE (2005)

Cy Young Kerry Wood (CHC)
Player of the Year: Todd Helton (COL)
Rookie Of The Year: Luis Terrero (ARI)

Gold Glove (P): Mike Hampton (ATL)
Gold Glove (RF): Richard Hidalgo (ATL)

Closer Ricardo Rincon had one helluva year for himself, saving 38 games en route to a 2.20 ERA. The A's couldnt afford to retain, and he looks like he's headed to the Yankees for $9.1M a year. Ken Griffey Jr. looks to have rediscovered himself in Cleveland, hitting .315 48HR and leading his team to a playoff berth. Cleveland SP Rudy Miller was the first pick of the draft and was effective, 13-9 with a 4.34. How bout those Indians. Going from 65 wins to 90.

Kerry Wood had arguably 2 better pitchers on his team, much less the league, but he won 17 games and Prior and Piniero, to fault of their own, had losing records. Helton had a great year as usual, aided by Coors Field, but the team failed to make the playoffs yet again. Luis Terrero came out of nowhere to hit .322 and get on base 41 percent of the time, impressive for a rookie.

Time to wheel and deal. I'm already looking at a phenom that the Rockies have, who plays both third and left. And he hits better than Cabrera, even if he doesnt have as much upside. I hope I can land him.

GM24

06-15-2004, 04:51 PM

NOVEMBER 10, 2005
Rockies receive Tony Armas Jr. (SP), Miguel Cabrera (LF) and Khalil Greene (SS)
Expos receive Zachary Wolcott (LF)

It took alot of work, but I managed to land he next great thing in Zachary Wolcott. And I managed to trim 7 million in payroll. How conveient.

SP Tony Armas Jr. (12-8 3.67) is a very fine pitcher. Armas is the kind of pitcher that relies on movement on his breaking pitches, and he might find that at Coors Field his curveball wont break as sharply. Tony isnt a power pitcher and probably wont like his new home. Armas injured his knee and wont be able to pitch until late May. His contract expires at the end of the year.

LF/3B Miguel Cabrera hit .278 with 27 homeruns last year, and has an unlimited upside (99 peak, 74 overall). Miguel is 21 and has already hit 46 homeruns. Imagine what he could do at Coors Field. Cabrera will take his strong arm out to LF and bat 6th in an already strong lineup.

SS Khalil Greene was one of three shortstops acquired last year by the Expos. Khalil has pretty good upside (77) but makes too many errors in a demanding position. In AAA Khalil hit .285 last year and was 20-70 (.286) in the bigs. He will start and bat 8th for the Rockies

3B Zachary Wolcott is an impressive hitter at the age of 24. In AAA he hit .328 with 36 doubles and 34 bombs for an OPS of 1.018. He is only average with the glove, but has a peak 15 points away. I fully expect Wolcott to accomplish what he did in AAA last year somewhere down the road. He was the #4 pick of the draft last year and is signed for the minimum through 2010.

My payroll is a mere $30.8M after this deal, and my offense is pheonmenal if not unproven. Pitching is a little weak right now. I tried very hard to acquire Jason Jennings in the deal, a Tony Armas Jr. clone who also had a contract expiring, but it couldnt be done. SP Tony Rylance will be promoted to the major league roster, although it concerns me that his movement is just at 70. But his control is 95, which puts him with elite company. He will have to learn to use that control effectively in a hurry. In the meantime, I plan to acquire another starter and put SP Ben Howard in long relief and Tomo Ohka as the 5th starter.

RF Ichiro Suzuki is looking real tempting to me right now. The 2001 MVP does everything wel he posesses excellent skills. He hit .302 last year splitting time with the Mariners and the Red Sox, and won the gold glove back in 2004. But at $7.2M a year for 5 years I cant afford him. However, my old CF Dave Roberts is on the market...

November 10th 2005
Expos sign FA C Michel Hernandez to a 2 year/$340K a year deal
Hernandez hit .327 in 153 ABs but is more likely to hit .267 at a big league level. Hernandez has a 64 OVR and an 84 peak. Hernandez will probably never play a game with the Expos, certainly not at C anyway with a 60 arm. He;s more of an investment, if he gets good by next year, I'll trade him for something I need. Maybe Ill even convert to SS so I can get more. More power to me.

GM24

06-15-2004, 05:50 PM

Decemember 1st 2005
Expos and 2B Antonio Perez agree to 3 year deal worth $470K per
Perez, 25, cant contribute at the major league level yet, except for being a pinch runner, but what allures me is his 76 peak. Perez can play all IF positions. He will likely be used as trade fodder in a year or two from now.

CF Dave Roberts was scooped up by the Red Sox at $2.2M a year for 5 years... too rich for my blood. Ichiro was signed by the Cardinals for what he wanted... the only CF left is.. Jason Lane. No thanks.

There really isnt anyone worth my trouble in the FA market... except for maybe RP Sanchez, a 23 year old average releiver with a 75 peak.

Ill likely cover the draft with the next post. In the draft there are two RPs that are ready to be closers now, which is amazing. I hope one of them falls to the #5 pick...

GM24

06-15-2004, 11:03 PM

*My closer, Ty Kirn, is 6' 10" tall! That makes him as tall as Randy Johnson. The shortest player in the game is an Oakland A's shortstop, he is a diminuitive 5' 0"*

December 8th 2005
Signed FA RP Felix Sanchez to a 1 year $320K deal
Sanchez, 23, is just average now but has a chance to develop into a good releiver. His peak is 9 away. Its encouraging that he put up good numbers in AAA, giving up just 6 homeruns and 91 hits in 106 IP. This move is pretty low risk. It's like picking up an extra second round pick.

January 14th 2006
Signed FA RP Chad Gaudin to a 1 year $770K deal
Gaudin is someone I need to step in and perform right away. Gaudin, 22, gets good control and movement on his pitches. He put up good numbers in AAA and with a 58 endurance will start the season in long relief.

Now for the draft.

Round 1, Pick 5: Expos select SP Alex Leslie (74/87)

With the two amazing releivers gone in the first two picks, I focused toward other players. I had to make a difficlult choice between LF Paul Nash, who is 20 and has a 94 eye, 91 peak, and SP Alex Leslie, who had power and control in the high 80s and movement in the low 70s. I liken Paul Nash to an Adam Dunn, maybe even a Jason Giambi type, he draws alot of walks and has some power. But while Nash has a long way to go Alex Leslie can contribute now, and he'll be a good pitcher beside. He'll start the year in AAA, but if anyone in the rotation gets seriously hurt I'l need him to step in.

Round 2, Pick 35: Expos select RP Martin Reilly (68/75)

Reilly, 21, has a 3.45 ERA in AA. He has good control, average power, and average movement. If Reilly develops properly, he should be a useful piece in the bullpen.

Round 3, pick 65: Expos select LF Tony Brodsky (56/75)

Brodsky is 22 and crude. Brodsky hit 13 homeruns in AA last season, which is rare with a player his age. He should develop average contact and could perhaps start in the future. He has average speed and good power potential. He can also play 1B and RF.

Round 4, pick 95: Expos select RP Mark Benjamin (62/68)

Benjamin, 22, is a solid player who had a good year and a bad year in AA. Benjamin could develop into something I can use.

Round 5, pick 125: Expos select 2B Rico Alvarez (52/68)

Alvarez, 26, may be rated low but he isnt a seriously flawed player. Alvarez has too strong an arm to be playing second base so I will switch him to 3rd or short. He will make a useful utility player in time.

Round 6, pick 155: Expos select LF Zachary Canapary (51/68)

Zachary Canapary. Say that out loud. What an awesome name! That has to be the best one Ive ever heard! Zachary is very raw, but strong. He has a good arm and looks as if he will develop into a power hitter. But his plate discipline is mediocre, and thats something that is very hard to develop. If he takes kindly in my farm system though, he'll develop into something.

GM24

06-16-2004, 05:46 PM

JANUARY 17, 2006
Mariners receive Jaime Cerda (RP) and Enrique Cruz (SS)
Expos receive Quentin Kaussen (RP)

I was suprised that this trade was accepted, but I wasnt about to turn it down and risk the GM changing his mind.

RP Jamie Cerda, 26, was thought to be the Expos closer when he was signed to that 4 year, $1.15M a year deal. But after his signing his ratings took a hit, and he had a very poor 2005. Cerda is still a good pitcher nonetheless, and will try to redeem himself on the Mariners revamped bullpen.

SS Enrique Cruz was signed to a 2 year deal last season to compete for a starting job. Peralta won, but I thought Cruz had the potenial to start in a few years. Cruz is a good contact hitter, he has hit over .300 the past two seasons in AAA, but he is only average defensively at a demanding position. Unfourtunately for the Mariners Cruz's ratings took a hit after being traded.

RP Quentin Kaussen is only 19 but may be one of the elite releivers on baseball. Quentin was the 3rd overall pick last year, and joins 5th overall pick Ty Kirn in the pen. Quentin has excellent control and power and very good movement. Becuase of his ability to strike out hitters he will close games for the 'Spos.

Extended SP Ben Howard to a 3 year/ $980K per

Ben Howard pitched better than expected last year, posting a 4.61 ERA in 22 starts. Howard has good skills, though I intended to move him into long relief next season and pursue a better starter.

Or Maybe I'll pursue that now..

JANUARY 24, 2006
Mets receive Jose Mercedes (SP), Rene Reyes (RF) and Trey Lunsford (C)
Expos receive Pedro Astacio (SP)

After looking up and seeing that my overall rating was a 75, by far the higest ive seen of my team, and that the best team in the division, the Mets, were 77, I figured I might do something to swing the balance of favor to me, and make the team something competitive.

SP Jose Mercedes proved himself to be an above average pitcher and spent most of the season in the setup role. Mercedes pitched 98 innings in 2005, allowing a 3.86 ERA. Mercedes is a useful pitcher with above average skill, he can even do some long relief, but he probably wont get much action with the Mets. His contract expires at the end of the year. SP Ben Howard will assume the role of Alt. Starter with his departure.

RF Rene Reyes improved only slightly with the Expos but figures to be an everyday player in his prime. He has mostly average skills but has trouble catching the ball. He will never see the light of day in the Mets crowded farm system, but he figures to get a top notch education with the #1 farm spending.

C Trey Lunsford had some potential, I even had plans to use him as a pinch hitter/backup catcher next season, but his arm is weak and he allows alot of passed balls. He will rot in AAA as well.

In the deal I get 35 year old veteran starter Pedro Astacio. Astacio had an excellent year in 2005 winning 16 games and finshing with a 3.41 ERA. Age isnt an issue with Astacio, he keeps himself in very good health. My only concern is the longball, he gave up 28 homeruns in 209 innings, but that isnt terrible. However the Mets hit a lot of homeruns last season, and in order for my team to make the playoffs (gasp) it would have to go through the New York club. Astacio has great skill and adds veteran leadership. He should put up good numbers in his 15th season.

After that trade, the Expos have a 78 rating and the Mets a 76! However, that doesnt guarantee a 1st place finish, or a good season. Well, that will likely conclude off season activity. Next post will be opening day rosters.

GM24

06-16-2004, 10:07 PM

Last First Pos Age Sal Cntrct YrsPro Con Pow Spd Eye Arm Rng Fld Hlth
Lineup
Werth Jayson RF 25 3500000 4 0 92 79 87 79 89 86 80 C+
Martin. Victor C 26 3100000 7 4 93 73 62 80 91 91 98 C+
Vidro Jose 2B 30 4900000 5 9 94 76 62 89 81 86 76 A
Rivera Juan LF 26 2800000 7 5 88 85 70 77 93 87 65 C+
Wolcot. Zach 3B 24 300000 5 0 88 81 66 91 74 74 71 A
Harvey Ken 1B 27 1700000 4 5 81 80 59 77 76 86 69 C+
Peralta Jhonny SS 22 420000 2 3 70 66 70 66 85 94 76 B-
Duncan Jeff CF 26 300000 2 3 76 70 86 77 65 96 89 C+
Bench
Restov. Mike RF 26 920000 1 1 81 75 76 79 76 75 76 C+
Guzman Ed 3B 28 330000 1 7 77 73 65 75 70 62 74 C+
Carroll Jamey IF 31 300000 1 4 75 71 76 77 75 75 76 C+
Laker Tim C 35 360000 1 14 62 74 62 69 74 69 71 C+
Yamam. Hiroshi OF 24 300000 5 0 77 70 64 75 77 66 66 B
Santos Angel 2B 25 390000 1 0 70 71 84 66 80 64 62 C+

I decided to go with ratings this time becuase, well, some of my better players are rookies. Jayson Werth, Victor Martinez, Juan Rivera, and Zach Wolcott either havent played at all in the bigs or have been honing their skill in the minors the past two seasons.

My scouting by the way, is +-8.

This lineup is pretty strong. Look at the contact ratings of the first five hitters. They could all hit .300! Zach Wolcott has such a good eye, I might swap him for Juan Rivera in the order. Juan Rivera is certainly the slugger of the bunch, though. He slugged .693 in AAA.

There isnt much speed in this lineup. Only Jayson Werth and Jeff Duncan would be considered fast, and it's not like I'm going to let them steal a whole lot (Duncan stole only 9 bases last season.) Ken Harvey is fat and slow. And he didnt perform as well as I'd liked last season, he had an OPS of .786. Not bad, but I'll need more than that from my 1B.

The bench isnt too bad. It's good for a low budget team. Mike Restovich is a good hitter. And Angel Santos is a good runner. Nobody on the pine is a good defender though. I do the best I can here.

Mogul Batting Rating: 81, 3rd in NL
Mogul Lineup Rating: 96, 1st
Mogul Bench Rating: 73, 12th

The range for every starter (except for Wolcott) is real good too. Added up, the 8 starters have a range of 700. That has to be some sort of record. Juan Rivera will make his share of errors but has a cannon in left. RF Jayson Werth will also get his share of assists. Ken Harvey is a below average fielder but actually played well last year at first, making only 4 errors. I worry about Zach Wolcott at 3rd, but he isnt terrible. Jeff Duncan is a human highlight film. He has a 96 range and rarely errs.

Mogul Defense Rating: 98, 2nd in NL

More soon..

GM24

06-16-2004, 11:02 PM

Last First Pos Age Sal Ctrct End Con Vel Mov Fld Hlth
Rotation
Milton Eric SP1 29 1450000 3 76 91 76 80 62 A-
Astaci. Pedro SP2 35 2000000 2 80 80 77 80 70 B+
Rylanc. Tony SP3 24 300000 5 87 94 77 77 76 B+
Ohka Tomo SP4 29 2100000 2 79 93 73 74 70 B
Gobble Jimmy SP5 23 1600000 2 74 79 77 80 74 C+
Bullpen
Kaus. Quent. Closr 19 300000 5 >50 91 88 86 75 C+
Kirn Ty Setup 22 300000 5 >50 91 86 80 60 C+
Toldeo Luis Short 27 300000 5 >50 86 81 74 64 C+
Taurec. Phil Mid 25 300000 5 >50 85 77 75 65 C+
Gaudin Chad Long 22 770000 1 59 80 75 76 74 C+
Howard Ben Alt 26 980000 3 75 77 74 77 74 C+

The arrival of Pedro Astacio strengthed the rotation. It appears by the ratings that SP Eric Milton and Tony Rylance are the most skilled on the team. Milton is really molding into an ace, and I am impressed with the development of Rylance. Astacio is a solid pitcher who at this point might be underrated by my scouts. If Ohka pitches to his potential he's alright and Gobble has mostly average skills. Although he had a low 3.48 ERA last season he had 12.25 runners/9IP. My starters have an excellent defense behind them who can turn many hits into outs.

The bullpen has a strong 1-2 punch in 6' 10" setup dude Ty Kirn and the Expos new closer Quentin Kaussen, who can pinpoint a 94 mph cut fastball that is difficult to hit. Luis Toledo struggled last season and I can only hope he adjusts to the big league level in a hurry. Phil Taureck has good control and average movement. He has never pitched an innings in the bigs. Rounding out the bullpen in long relief are new acquisition Chad Gaudin and Ben Howard, who are more than adequate in those roles.

Mogul Rotation Rating: 70, 5th in NL
Mogul Bullpen Rating: 59, 4th in NL
Mogul Pitching Rating: 65, 4th in NL

My pitching stacks up pretty well against the rest of the league. Couple that with a good defense, good hitting... I have a good ballclub all of a sudden. How did that happen? But can it live up to expectations?

The most amazing thing about this club is the payroll. At $34.6M, the payroll is lowest in the majors by a margin of 2:1 !!! The Mets payroll, at $123.5M, is 3.5X more than my team.

Overall Rating: 78, 2nd in NL
I admit that I'm a little skeptical of these ratings. The Mets and Braves are really good teams, and theyve proven themselves. I have a lot of rookies. Rookies dont do well the first year, they need to adjust. Hmm

Well, I'll take a more detailed look at these teams when Im playing them in the regular season. Maybe 2006 will be a winning year for the Spos.

GM24

06-17-2004, 11:36 PM

Opened the season playing at Busch Stadium, vs. the Cardinals. New to the Cardinals are RF Ichiro Susuki, a .300 hitter with great speed and fielding, and 1B Carlos Pena, a slugger who had struggled in Detroit. The Cardinals are going with youth to replace Jim Edmonds at CF. 23 year old Rudy Hooper has great speed and range, even some power, but he isnt ready for big league pitching. He is 13 points from his peak, and will be someday.

Adding another thing to my wishlist: A strategy slider for pitchers bunting. When no one is out and you have speedy Jeff Duncan on 1st and the pitcher is coming up, he should bunt. Period.

I love having someone with a strong arm behind the plate. To eliminate the whole base stealing factor is very advantageous. I think I'm going to like this team I created..

Ugh!! Zachary Wolcott was taken out in the 7th inning for a defensive replacement!! We're only up 2 runs, and now we have Ed Guzman hitting cleanup. Guzman isnt even that good a fielder. There is absoultely no reason for anyone on my team to be replaced defensively. Look at the player ratings for Christ Sake. I'm turning defensive replacement down to minimum.

Ed Guzman came up with runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out, sure enough. At least he made himself useful by getting hit by a pitch. This whole situation is like when Homer Simpson pinch hit for Darryl Strawberry in that famous Simpsons episode where Monty Burns hires the services of all-star base ballers for the company softball game.

We added an insurance run in that inning, and Eric Milton pitches a complete game shutout as the Expos win 3-0! What a great start to the year!

GM24

06-18-2004, 12:51 AM

APRIL 9, 2006
Reds receive Edwards Guzman (3B)
Expos receive Brandon Larson (3B)

If my manager is going to insist on using a defensive replacement in close games, then Im going to at least trade for a good defensive player.

Ed Guzman actually played quite well last season, hitting .284 with 5 homers in 309 ABs. Ed has some offensive talent but has terrible range and his contract expires at the end of the year.

Brandon Larson is one of the best third basemen in the bigs. As far as defense goes. Larson has superb range and a very strong arm. Larson rarely puts the bat on the ball but as a good eye. He could compile high walk and strikeout totals if given the chance. But he wont... he will be there strictly for defensive purposes. He makes the league minimum through 2009.

...

After sweeping the Cardinals I faced the woeful Phillies. The Phillies didnt get out of debt last season so they lost even more players. They have someone they drafted in the 4th round of the 2005 minor league draft at short, and he is downright awful, a 52 overall rating and peak. 2B Terry Shumpert, a career backup since when he broke in in 1990 with the Royals, starts and bats 7th, and is a huge defensive liabilty like the shortstop. They have retained all-stars RF Bobby Abreu and slugging 1B Jim Thome, though they are a big reason why they are in debt. The overall pitching rating for this team is an unimaginable 45. For some reason the Phillies refused to draft a single pitcher in the past two years. They have 2 relief pitchers starting. Even so they elect to go with the 5 man rotation. Brilliant. Needless to say this team wont be a factor this year. When they get out of debt though, watch out.

I lost the series, 2 games to 1. It's weird. In the three games I've watched, the team allowed 5 runs. In the three games I didnt, Ive given up 26. I think Im gonna be watching alot more games.

In the next post, I'll size up the Braves, and then sim out the month.

GM24

06-18-2004, 05:32 PM

April 16 2006
Not much is changed from the Braves squad of 2005 that won 94 games. Rich Harden, coming of a fairly good year in Oakland, is the 5th starter. The Braves signed RF Micheal Ryan to a 3 year, $30.6M contract. Ryan is a five tool player, he hit .324 with 24 HR 15 SB, 22 assists and won a gold glove. My scouts dont think he could repeat such a year. He will sit on the bench this year and take over for Chipper Jones in 2007 I guess. The Braves lost their starting SS and C but have capable replacements for them in Mark DeRosa and Jonny Estrada. To win this year the Bravse will need a better performance from their bullpen... John Smoltz is 37 and isnt the stellar closer he once was. Still, a good team overall. I see them winning 90 games.

In Jimmy Gobble's first 2 starts, he's given up 6 homeruns. This makes me uneasy.

Jeff Duncan has drawn 10 walks through 10 games, good for an OBP of .488. I like this new Jeff Duncan. He was a disaster offensively last year. (.220, 28 XBH)

I just realized that when I traded last season for Tim Laker it was his homecoming. He broke in with the Expos back in 1992. He was a member of the competitive 1992 and 93 teams. His return last year marked his first time in 10 years in an Expo uniform.

We won the series, improving our record to 8-4, and then Jhonny Peralta broke his wrist. He'll miss a month.

...

April Record: 15-7, 1.5 GA!
AVG: .301, 2nd in NL
OBP .374, 2nd in NL
SLG: .458, 3rd in NL
SB: 7, 15th in NL
CS: 1, Probably 1st
ERA: 4.12, 7th
Runs Allowed: 110, 9th
Defensive Average: .673, 9th
Zachary Wolcott: .310, 6HR, 1.087 OPS... .870 FldPct

Finally, a reason to celebrate! I'll enjoy it while it lasts, mind you. Offenesively everything is going great. Jayson Werth is hitting .348. Jeff Duncan is hitting .347 with a .478 OBP, somehow. Ken Harvey has hit 5 homeruns. Zachary Wolcott is 8th in the NL in Slugging... but last in fielding! Brandon Larson is looking like a good pickup. Wolcott has the skills to turn it around however.

The defensive average is 9th and the fielding percentage hasnt been good, which doesnt bode well becasue my pitching staff isnt overpowering and needs defense behind it. The right side of the infield could be to blame for that... Wolcott has made his share of errors and Peralta wasnt covering enough ground, a -11% range, before he got injured. Other than that everyone else has covered alot of ground... Jeff Duncan hasnt been able to make his usual 2.5 plays a game becuase Rivera and Werth have outstanding range and are taking away some of his action. Which is good becuase Rivera and Werth have very strong arms, even if LF Juan Rivera is somewhat prone to error.

Pitching has been good so far. Tony Rylance has been outstanding so far, in 5 starts he is 4-0 with a 2.73. New closer Quentin Kaussen has a 4.82 ERA, but no blown saves and losses. His ERA is so high becuase he blew up against the dangerous Rockies, which is understandable. The only pitcher I'm concerned about is Jimmy Gobble, who has a 6.00 ERA, 8 walks and 7 HR allowed in 15 innings. He usually puts up good numbers and should rebound.

The Expos are 1.5 games up on the Mets in the divison and actually have the best record in the NL by a half game. I can only hope this pattern holds up.

GM24

06-18-2004, 11:22 PM

It was getting pretty bad. The Expos lost 12 of the first 16 games of May. We lost all sorts of games. Long games, short games, high scoring games, low scoring affairs, blowing games late, blowing 5 run leads. I was getting frusterated. But the team has won 5 straight and has got back on track to face the divison leading New York Mets.

The Mets (26-18) are tops in the divison, and its easy to see why. The Mets have gotten top notch performance from SS Nomar Garciparra. He looks like the Nomar of old, hitting .358 with 10 homeruns in 43 games thus far. New Acquistion Mark Texieira is hitting .318 with 12 bombs. 39 year old pitcher Tom Glavine has turned back the clock and in 8 starts is a perfect 4-0. And closer Braden Looper has been a big part of the Mets success, saving 7 games.

The Mets swept the two game series, including an extra inning heartbreaker where the Mets came from 4 behind to win.
...
May: 12-16
Overall Record: 27-23, 3.0GB
Homers: 42, 15th in NL
OBP: .366, 1st in NL
SlugPct: .437, 6th in NL
ERA: 4.76, 12th in NL
FldPct: .975, LAST

Offense is fine. Jeff Duncan is on a real tear, hitting .367 with 7 homeruns, a .464 OBP and 3 stolen bases. Just a year ago, he was pathetic. What's gotten into Jeff Duncan.

What's gotten into my middle relief. Luis Toledo has allowed 11 homeruns in 22 innings en route to a 6.45 ERA. Phil Taureck has a 7.13 ERA. I guess these guys arent just ready for the bigtime yet.

I might look into acquiring bullpen help... I certainly need it.

GM24

06-19-2004, 05:57 PM

In June the Expos won 15 of their first 18 games, and lead the NL east by 2 games! To be fair, many of those games were against weaker opponents. We went 11-3 vs. the sub .500 Marlins, White Sox, Royals and the pathetic Tigers. So the competition hasnt been terribly stiff. We have an important week and a half coming up though, as we have 6 games against the 3rd place Braves in that span.

The Braves have been struggling to get it together, owning a 36-32 record. Really though, the Braves match up well with us. Atlanta has played as many games as my team, and they have scored just 6 fewer runs and given up 4 less. So really we have similar Pythagorean Records, or whatever you call those.

The problem may lie within their bullpen. Braves closer John Smoltz and setup man Antonio Alfonseca have had poor years and have combined to blow 9 saves. That isnt good for a team that has played so many close games.

My bullpen on the other hand has been great. 19 year old closer Quentin Kaussen has saved 13 games and looks to be the real deal. He has a 2.45 ERA and a .191 OBA. Setup man Ty Kirn has suffered from bloop singles and cheap hits, he has a disproportinate amount of hits given up but the 6' 10" 2nd year player has struck out 35 in 35.1 IP, and has a 3.57 ERA. Those hits wont keep falling with the Expos outstanding defense. My middle relief has settled down, Luis Toledo and Phil Taureck lowered their ERAs over a point in the past three weeks.

Tony Rylance, my 1st round pick last year, has 10 wins to lead the National League! What a phenomenal rookie season he is having. Pedro Astacio had a bad start, but threw a 10 inning shutout against Curt Shilling and the Royals back on June 11th and has really turned it around since. Jimmy Gobble is pitching much better now, he is 7-5 with a 4.64 ERA.

Jeff Duncan is hitting 149 points higher than he did last year. He is 3rd in the NL with a .369 BA and could potentially double his hit total from last season. He already has 9 homeruns to last years 4 in less than half the ABs. When Duncan amasses 531 ABs (how many ABs he had last year) I'd like to do a before and after comparison.

Tomo Ohka and Jimmy Gobble have minor injuries, Ben Howard is playing very poorly, so that set the stage for the #5 pick of 2006, Alex Leslie, to make his major league debut against the Red Sox on June 25th, 2006.

The 29-43 Red Sox are not the team they were three years ago. All-stars SS Nomar Garciaparra and LF/DH Manny Ramirez are no longer on the team. No one on the team is hitting over .300. Former Expo CF Dave Roberts is struggling with his new team, the Sox, he has an OPS of abour .650. This is a good team for a kid to get his first start against.

The Expos had a 5 run 4th inning and the Expos won 6-4. Alex Leslie had an outstanding first start, allowing 1 earned run in 6.2 innings, earning his first major league victory. Ty Kirn had a shaky outing though, giving up 2 runs in an inning and a third. Kirn might be tipping his pitches; he has allowed alot of hits.

I've been looking at acquiring 37 year old San Diego closer Trevor Hoffman for the sretch drive. In his 14th major league season he has a 2.41 ERA and 12 saves. He is in the final year of his contract of $3.6 million a year.

Rest of June next.

GM24

06-20-2004, 01:49 PM

JUNE 27, 2006
Padres receive Tom Grove (RP), Martin Reilly (SP), Marv Molander (SP), Angel Santos (2B), Anthony Ferrari (RP) and Mark Benjamin (SP)
Expos receive Trevor Hoffman (RP) and Carlos Casid (C)

The Expos deal several promising propsects, but in return get something they coveted.

That person is RP Trevor Hoffman. Hoffman, a 37 year old with 418 career saves, is still dominant to this day. He has excellent skills, and has given up just 1 homerun in 41.0 IP. He has also struck out 39 and has an ERA of 2.41. Becuase Quentin Kaussen has played so well, Hoffman will play in the setup role. His $3.6M/yr contract expires at the end of the year.

C Carlos Hasid, 21, was the 100th pick of the 2005 draft. Hasid never makes mistakes behind the plate, but he will need alot of work on his ugly looking swing. He has alot of upside, and projects to be an average major leaguer (68 peak). I would like to use him as a backup C as soon as next year.

In return the Padres get an injunction of youth:
RP Tom Grove, who was my 4th round choice in 2005, 4 picks before Hasid. Grove was a big project when I drafted him, and that remains the case. Grove has the velocity to challenge major league hitters, but he has trouble locating his pitches, and his curveballs dont curve half the time. Grove, 26, is having success in AAA but he might not improve enough to reach the bigs.

SP Martin Reilly, 21, was my 2nd round pick in 2006. Reilly has been less than advertised since coming over to the Expos. But with work on his movement, Reilly will become an above average releiver.

SP Marv Molander, 22, has made improvements since when I drafted him in the 6th round of 2005, and may very well make it to the bigs. He has average control and movement and below average power. He has some room for improvement and could very well turn out to be the sleeper pick of the 2005 draft.

2B Angel Santos, 25, could develop into a major league starter. In 40 at bats this year Santos collected 10 hits. For now, Santos is only good as a pinch runner, but in time I see him hitting for contact and scoring a good amount of runs.

RP Anthony Ferrari, 26, pitched well for the Expos in 2005, well enough to receive an extension. But there wasnt any room in the pen for young pitcher, despite his 3.42 ERA last season. Ferrari has the skills to get big league hitters out but will sometimes leave his pitches out over the plate. With some work on his control he could become a useful releiver.

SP Mark Benjamin, 22, was the Expos 4th round pick this year. Benjamin is close to reaching the bigs. His movement is considered below average on the major league level, however. Benjamin is 18 points away from his peak, and should become a 4th or 5th starter somewhere.

Well, I got my wish, getting a premier pitcher in Hoffman. Hoffman is 37 and has a contract expiring next season, but thats the reason I was able to get him. I have nothing of great value I am willing to trade. The Padres get an influx of youth for their minor league system. Before trading Hoffman every pitcher in their major league bullpen was over 30. They also cleared $1.6M off their books and maybe they can avoid going into debt. With this trade it is let known to Expos fans that their team is committed to making the playoffs this season.

GM24

06-21-2004, 12:50 AM

June 29th, 2006

Trevor Hoffman fractures finger, out 15 days.

Aaahahahaha.

GM24

06-21-2004, 02:02 AM

June Record: 23-4 (!!)
Overall Record: 50-27, 7.5 GA (!)
Batting Average: .287 (1st in NL)
On Base: .363 (2nd in NL) Trail Colorado by .001
ERA: 4.05 (2nd in NL) LA Dodgers lead NL with a 3.12!
Allowed On Base: .329 (3rd in NL)
Save %: 63.6% (2.3% below league average)

23-4. What a month. We embarrased alot of teams during the month, especially our divison rival Braves, who we went 6-1 against.

And with wins, comes cash. In three months the Expos have made $3.8M, and becuase of a relatively tiny payroll and 27 teams losing money, the teams spending on farm system (4th) scouting (10th) and Med Staff (13th). Payroll is of course 30th at $36.6M.

The teams success has been largely die to several key contributors stepping up their play. CF Jeff Duncan is playing his way into the all star game. He's hitting .356 with 10 HRs, a .459 OBP, and 5 SBs. Jose Vidro has similar numbers, hitting .350 with 10HR and a .429 OBP, and he leads the NL with 66 runs scored.
Victor Martinez is hitting .330 and Ken Harvey leads the team in HRs with 13.

The Expos have also had great pitching. Pedro Astacio and Eric Milton both have ERAs of 3.75. Tony Rylance has won 12 decisions and has an ERA of 3.43. Closer Quentin Kaussen has an ERA of 2.31 and has 16 saves and only 1 blown. Trevor Hoffman pitched an inning an a third of scoreless relief before going on the DL.

Some concerns of the Expos include rookie Zachary Wolcott, who has hit .253, but has drawn his share of walks and improved his fielding percentage to a respectable .936. Besides hes only a rookie. Jhonny Peralta is not hitting, sporting a .216 average and a pitiful .592 OPS. But the Expos are in very good shape, and I am confident in this teams ability to make the playoffs. Next post will be for the all-star break.

GM24

06-21-2004, 03:43 PM

We stroll into the break 56-32, 6.5 GA of the Mets. The break was needed, as this was a battered team. Tomo Ohka, Jimmy Gobble, and Trevor Hoffman were all on the disabled list coming into a 4 game series at home vs. the Mets, of which I was only able to take one. Needless to say my bullpen is very tired.

As a result Alex Leslie got his first home start against the tame Marlins, and had an even better outing than his ML debut a few weeks ago , going 8 innings and allowing just 1 run. Leslie is a bit hittable right now but he has excellent power and control. He really is going to be a great pitcher.

Player stats at the half.

Last First Pos G AVG AB HR BB K SB SLG OBP
Lineup
Werth Jayson RF 84 0.301 352 9 53 73 8 0.457 0.399
Duncan Jeff CF 78 0.354 308 10 51 49 5 0.532 0.459
Vidro Jose 2B 85 0.342 348 10 46 47 3 0.506 0.425
Rivera Juan LF 81 0.289 343 12 35 46 1 0.487 0.355
Harvey Ken 1B 76 0.288 302 13 34 63 1 0.49 0.376
Martin. Victor C 64 0.313 265 2 35 38 2 0.396 0.393
Wolcott Zachary 3B 84 0.253 332 9 48 69 3 0.407 0.345
Peralta Jhonny SS 55 0.227 203 2 23 42 3 0.305 0.307
Bench
Yamamo. Hiroshi OF 26 0.269 93 1 7 9 0 0.344 0.317
Restov. Michael RF 68 0.233 86 0 7 16 0 0.314 0.287
Carroll Jamey IF 58 0.267 161 1 20 32 5 0.366 0.36
Larson Brandon 3B 45 0.255 47 1 5 10 0 0.383 0.327
Laker Tim C 31 0.246 118 2 4 30 0 0.407 0.27

Theres alot of people that can get on base in this lineup. Jose Video and Jeff Duncan continue to lead the team in hitting, and are 4th and 1st in the league in OBP, respectively. Jayson Werth is 2nd in the NL with 72 runs scored. I have moved Ken Harvey up to the cleanup spot becuase he gets on base more often than Juan Rivera. Victor Martinez is doing a very fine job in the 6 hole, but I hope he can develop more power in the years to come. Jhonny Peralta never had a knack for hitting, but hes not killing us. Could have something to do with the wrist he broke back in April...

I'm alarmed to see that Jamey Carroll has 161 at bats. At least hes a better hitter than Peralta. Since his arrival Brendan Larson has come in to play 3rd 8 times as a replacement. In a game I watched recently though, Jamey Carroll came in to replace Wolcott. I think the AI in play by play mode does things differently. To find out for sure I would have to examine game recaps of games that werent PbP. That's not something I'm about to do.

Last First IP ERA W L SV K BB R/9
Rotation
Astacio Pedro 105.2 4 4 2 0 80 45 12.01
Milton Eric 117.2 3.82 7 6 0 78 37 12.16
Rylance Tony 120.2 3.43 13 2 0 85 23 10.59
Ohka Tomo 93 3.68 7 5 0 56 28 12.48
Gobble Jimmy 91 4.65 9 6 0 68 48 13.25
Pen
Kausse. Quentin 47 2.49 3 0 17 48 22 10.72
Hoffman Trevor 42.1 2.34 5 0 12 41 24 12.54
Kirn Ty 52.1 3.78 3 4 1 51 21 14.96
Toldeo Luis 34.2 4.93 1 2 0 31 14 15.58
Gaudin Chad 52.2 3.93 3 1 2 37 19 11.62
Howard Ben 35 8.49 1 2 1 29 12 18.51
Others
Leslie Alex 14.2 1.23 2 0 0 11 3 11.05
Taurec. Phil 38 5.21 2 2 2 31 10 14.21

The starting pitching has held up remarkably well. The 1-4 pitchers are pitching well and give us a chance to win day in and day out. Jimmy Gobble is a pretty good pitcher too, but his somewhat high WHIP concerns me.

Aside from Kaussen and Hoffman, and maybe Gaudin, everyone in my bullpen concerns me! Ty Kirn, Luis Toldeo, and Phil Taureck have given up way too many hits. I dont want these guys coming into games with men on base, but thats what has happened. Toldeo and Taureck are probably not ready for the bigs but Kirn is awesome skill wise and needs to play alot better. Ben Howard has an atrocious stat line. I need him to perform like he did in 2005. Even so, its a good thing I got Astacio.

Jose Vidro started the all-star game. Jeff Duncan didnt make it, which was suprising. Carl Everett, who is having a monster year hitting .331 with 28 (!) homers at the half, beat him out. Tony Rylance, Quentin Kaussen and new Expo Trevor Hoffman all made it as "alternates".

Also making it as an alternate is former Expo Scott Downs, who I traded to the Dodgers along with LF Matt Cepicky for CF Dave Roberts. Downs is 6-1 with a 3.01 ERA. Downs is an average pitcher though. I expect him to start to put up numbers like his 2005 ones: 10-13, 5.43 ERA. Matt Cepicky is having a good year himself, hitting .292 with 14 HR and putting up similar numbers to my LF Juan Rivera. Looks like the Dodgers got the better of me with that trade.

The National League won the all-star game, Vidro went 2 for 4, and now its time for the pennant race. The Expos look to retain their first place record. Stay tuned

GM24

06-21-2004, 08:39 PM

July 20th 2006
C Victor Martinez suffers torn knee ligament, will miss 8 months.

Montreal- The torn knee ligament that disabled Montreal catcher Victor Martinez should have a chance of career-ending lasting damage.

This is a dark day for Montreal. Martinez was a cornerstone of the franchises future. He was signed to a 7 year extension before the beginning of the season. Victors ratings took a slight hit, but its nothing he cant recoup; his peak (96) is 20 points higher than his overall. Here is a comparison of Victor at the beginning of the year and right after his injury.

(Before)

Last First Pos Age Sal Cntrct YrsPro Con Pow Spd Eye Arm Rng Fld Hlth
Martin. Victor C 26 3100000 7 4 93 73 62 80 91 91 98 C+

Now

Last First Pos Age Sal Cntrct YrsPro Con Pow Spd Eye Arm Rng Fld Hlth
Martin. Victor C 26 3100000 7 4 87 73 55 80 85 75 91 C+

If my scouts are correct in estimating the drop in Martinez's ratings, well, this isnt the end of the world really. Everything except for eye and power took a 6-7 point drop. Range took a large drop, from 91 to 75, but range isn't a factor for a catcher. I pay my B rated scouts fairly well, so these ratings couldnt be off by too much, 8 points in the worst possible scenario. I can only hope that this is the extent of a fall off. We wont really know until when Victor comes back, which is around Opening Day next season.

So now what? Tim Laker is the backup catcher. He has an average arm but is a bad hitter. I signed C Michel Hernandez as a FA before the season, who my scouts now feel has a 91 peak, which is great. He can hit in the majors now, but he has such a weak arm (60) that I'm afraid teams would run on him all the time. Probably the most important thing Victor brings to the orginization is that arm of his. I might just trade for a veteran catcher... but trade what? The only thing I have of value is RF Mike Restovich, who is a capable starter on some teams. Other than that I have IF Jamey Carroll, who is an average player who basically has 75s across the board.

I figured I ought to snoop around for good catching talent. After all, I may want Martinez to rehab in AAA for part of next season to try and reteach him skills he lost. After a short while I found something that piqued my interest.

JULY 20, 2006
Reds receive Michael Restovich (RF) and Kevin Ohme (RP)
Expos receive Corky Miller (C)

This is the 2nd trade I've made with the Reds this season. It may be tough to replace Restovich on the bench, but his contract is expiring, and Miller is much more valuable to me that Restovich at this point.

RF Michael Restovich is a fine hitting RF. His key strength is his excellent contact. He has struggled off the bench in 2006, compliling a .225 average, but has the capability to hit in the .290 range. Restovich, 26, is also pretty mobile. Last season he stole 9 bases in 110 games. Restovich is a good asset on any team. His contract expires at the end of the year, and his contract demands seem to indicate that he is looking for a starting job.

RP Kevin Ohme was signed in the beginning of 2005 to fill out the bullpen. He pitched an inning and a third and the promptly got injured, and then I decided I didnt need him in the first place. Ohme, 33, has average skills. After his contract runs out at the end of the year he might be able to cling on to a weaker team.

In this deal I got C Corky Miller, who will start and bat 7th for the Expos. Corky is 29 but has only played in 76 career games. But he is an excellent catcher. He has one of the strongest arms in the league and is a flawless fielder. He is certainly a stronger hitter than Tim Laker, batting .318 in AAA so far this season. He is a great pickup and we will need him to perform at his peak and learn about our pitchers fast if we want to win our divison. Corky is signed at $520K a year through 2010, certainly very reasonable.

Well, what can I say **** happens. Even with the injury, I acquired a good replacement and I dont think our team was hurt too bad. The teams OVR rating fell just 2 points. Let's hope for the best...

GM24

06-21-2004, 11:06 PM

July Record: 16-12
Overall Record: 66-39, .629 WinPct, 8.5 GA
Batting Average .283 (1st in NL)
ERA: 3.90 (2nd in NL)
On Base: .357 (2nd in NL)
Production: .782 (4th in NL)

A pretty shaky month, I'd say. Injuries here and there of varying severities, but we managed to get it together and finish the month strongly, taking 7 of our last 10, although admittedly against weaker teams.

Corky Miller has done well coming over, going 16-48 since the 'dark day'. He is a free swinger though, just 2 walks and 14 Ks. In fairness to Corky though, we faced Millwaukee flamethrower Jose Soranti twice. Soranti was the pick right before Alex Leslie in the 2006 draft. He is 6-6 with a 4.08 ERA, but in 132.1 IP he has walked 41 and struck out a whopping 145 hitters. And he beat us twice in two weeks. The kid is only 20, no less. He'll be around a long time.

Our starting pitching has been fantastic. Of the 5 SPs, no one has an ERA above 4.08. Tony Rylance still leads the league with 14 wins, and Jimmy Gobble has pitched very well since the break and now has 11. Quentin Kaussen has continued to pitch well, he has been in the closer role all year and has picked up 20 saves. Trevor Hoffman has been a bit of a concern, he has given up 7 walks in 10.2 IP with the Expos. Other than that he has pitched very well.

Barring catastrophe the Expos are playoff bound. They are 8 games up on the Mets, who in turn are 3 games up on San Diego in the Wild Card chase. If I play good baseball against the Mets, Padres, and the Braves, I should win the divison. Wouldnt that be something, to go from worst to first?

GM24

06-22-2004, 04:29 PM

Record: 15-12 Mets 20-8
Overall Record: 81-51, 4.0 GA Mets 77-55
Runs Scored: 679 Mets: 679
Runs Allowed: 578 Mets: 579
FieldPct: .980
Complete Games: 18, Leads Majors

The Mets are coming on strong. They had a 20-8 August, including a 6 game winning streak. All this despite torn rotator cuffs suffered by closer Braden Looper and 39 year old future HOF SP Tom Glavine. The Mets are the NL's most expensive team with a $123.5M payroll. The team has power up and down the lineup, their 184 homeruns are 2nd in the NL to the Rockies. And Shea Stadium isn't exactly a homerun haven either. They have a stronger bench and a deep pen becuase they can afford it. This Mets team isnt invincible. But the defending champs are in pretty good shape and are prime World Series contenders.

Are the Expos a prime contender? Well it depends. Its a very streaky team. The average age of the team is 24.1, far and away lowest in the majors. Only 5 players are 30 or older. Trevor Hoffman, Pedro Astacio, Tim Laker, and mainstay Jose Vidro will need to provide the veteran leadership for this team. Pedro Astacio has a ring with last year's Mets and pitched exceedingly well in the 2005 playoffs. Tim Laker was an Expo back in 1992 and 1993. Trevor Hoffman has pitched in many clutch games throughout his illustrious career, and played in a World Series in 1998.

The Expos do alot of things well. Defense is one of those things. With the exception of rookie 3B Zachary Wolcott all the starting position players have a positive relative range. SS Jhonny Peralta, LF Juan Rivera, and CF Jeff Duncan have turned alot of hits into outs, and have a positive range factor in the double digits. This has allowed the Expos to hold their opponents to a .259 batting average. LF Rivera and RF Jayson Werth have powerful arms in the outfield, combining for a whopping 35 assists. The defensive average for the Expos is tied for 4th in the NL at .692... with the Mets.

Pitching has been good for the most part. The 1-4 starting pitchers have pitched very well, they all have ERAs under 4. Every one of the starting pitchers are .500 or better, in fact Jimmy Gobble, Eric Milton, and Tony Rylance each have a dozen or more wins. Quentin Kaussen, a 19 year old rookie, and Trevor Hoffman, the 37 year old vet, make for an interesting and successful one-two punch in the bullpen. They both appeared on the cover of last week's Sports Illustrated together and a feature article was written on the unlikely pairing. Both Quentin and Trevor have ERAs in the mid 2s, and Quentin has 25 saves. Ty Kim has yet to pitch to what his talents may indicate, his ERA is 4.06 and OBA .291, but if he can improve mentally this bullpen could take us far.

The Expos offense is good but not spectacular. The players on the club arent exactly power hitters. Jose Vidro and Ken Harvey lead the team with 23 and 21, respectfully. What the 1-4 hitters do very well is get on base. the first four hitters have an average OBP of about .400. Jeff Duncan and Jose Vidro are among the best 5 in the league in getting on base this season. The 5-8 batters are a different story. Juan Rivera is hitting .273 with a whopping 45 doubles in the leadoff spot, but is a free swinger, he has 81 whiffs and an on base average of .329. Zachary Wolcott is still adjusting to major league pitching, his batting average is .255 with 10 homers, but we draws a lot of walks and has a respectable .344 OBA. Corky Miller has struck out once every 4.5 plate apperances, is hitting .264 and has disapointing power numbers. Jhonny Peralta has been a disaster offensively. He is hitting .221 with just 19 XBH.

The Expos would like to get on a roll on september and carry that momentum through the playoffs. Early in the year they face the Mets 6 times, and then the last series will be at home versus the Phillies, who are so bad they have already been eliminated from playoff contention. If the Expos have a good month, they can prove to the league that they are true contenders

GM24

06-22-2004, 07:57 PM

September 3rd-5th
Mets (79-55) at Expos (82-51)

Important series here. Expos hold a 3.5 game lead in the divison with a month to play.

September 3rd

John Patterson (9-9, 4.30 ERA) vs. Tony Rylance (15-5, 3.64 ERA)

Jhonny Peralta of all people hit a 3 run HR in the bottom of the 2nd to put the first runs on the board. Thats Peraltas 5th of the year. In the next inning Jeff Duncan hit 2 HRs in the game, hit 12th and 13th. Before this season he had 5 homers in about 680 career ABs. Tony Rylance had a shoutout going until the top of the 9th, when former Expo Jose Bautista hit his 19th homerun over the left field fence.
Expos win 5-1

September 4th

Al Leiter (6-8, 4.80) vs. Tomo Ohka (9-6, 3.90)

Al Leiter is 39 and has lost a lot of skill. Meanwhile Tomo Ohka has rebounded from his dismal 2005 campaign to put up good numbers.

The Expos strike early, hitting three consectutive singles to score the first run. After one inning the score is 2-0 Expos.

It seems there are alot more double plays in the PbP than in years past. Which I suppose is realisitic, especially for a slow footed team like mine.

The Mets squandered a bases loaded oppurtunity in the third, as Tomo Ohka struck out the feared slugging 1B Mark Teixiera. Al Leiter has gotten himself out of several jams himself. He looks a bit shaky, and the Mets pulled just him after 4 innings.

In the 5th Mike Cameron hit a shot to straight center... a leadoff HR. Expos lead 2-1.

Jose Vidro scored the third Expo run in the 6th, but made his 2nd error in the game in the next frame, allowing the speedy CF Prentice Redman to score that inning. Another run scored, and the game was tied at 3.

The Mets had a good chance to score in the 8th, with runners on 1st and 2nd and no one out with Trevor Hoffman on the mound. The veteran struck out 2 hitters and Zachary Wolcott caught a line drive to take away a hit. I'll be thanking my lucky stars, and then moving up the defensive replacements slider.

In the 9th, pinch hitter Jamey Carroll singled up the middle with 1 out. Jayson Werth laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt and moved Carroll to second. Jeff Duncan came up to the plate and smacked a line drive single into center to score the winning run. Expos win 4-3.

September 5th
Jeremy Griffiths (1-2, 3.60 ERA) vs. Jimmy Gobble (13-7, 4.28 ERA)

What luck. Tom Glavine has been out with a torn rotator cuff, so I avoid facing him, and his replacement, Jason Middlebrook, an average pitcher, has a strained rib and will miss this start. That leaves the Mets with 27 year old Jeremy Griffiths, a sub par pitcher that will give you 5 innings, tops. Looks like a sweep.

The game was close since the 2nd inning. All the offense had come on homeruns, a 2 run shot by Cliff Floyd and solo HRs by Jose Vidro and Juan Rivera. But in the top of the 9th Trevor Hoffman got into trouble, and couldnt get out of it this time. Pinch hitter Prentice Redman hit a 3 run homer to make the score 5-2, and thats how it ended.

Mets win 5-2

Well, 2 out of three aint bad. We gain a game on the Mets and are 4.5 game ahead with 26 games to go.

GM24

06-24-2004, 10:18 AM

All of the transactions disappeared. I have no idea how. I'm upset about it.

And why is the "auto-sort when players get hurt" checkbox always unchecked after you load a game? Why cant it stay checked?

After winning the next series at the Marlins 3 games to 1, the Expos made the flight up to New York to face the Mets. The Expos pitchers manhandled the anemic Florida offense, allowng just 9 runs over the 4 games. The bullpen has been exemlepary as of late. Every pitchers in the pen except for Ben Howard has an ERA of under 4. Howard has struggled this year, he has given up more homeruns (16) than walks (15) in 47 innings, and has an ERA of nearly 7. I probably should have given him a start against the Marlins. I need his value to go up in case I decide to trade him.

The Mets are fresh off a series versus the woeful Phillies, taking 2 of 3. As a result of this the Expos gained a half game's ground over the last 4 days.

September 10-12, 2006:
Expos (87-53) at Mets (82-58, 5GB)

Game 1: Jimmy Gobble (13-8, 4.16 ERA) vs. Al Leiter (6-8, 4.84 ERA)

Mets SP Al Leiter was a dominant pitcher as recently as 2 years ago, when he went 12-11 with a 2.83 ERA. Since then the 39 year old has regressed; his once lethal curveball is now easily picked up by good major league hitters. Jimmy Gobble however is on the upswing. Hitters have trouble picking up pitchers on this 23 year old starter, in his 4 year career Gobble has allowed am impressive .240 OBA. Comparing this year to last (he has 155.2 IP this year and had 155.0 last season,) Jimmy had given up 5 more homeruns and 6 more walks, but 11 less hits. Credit a revamped defense for that effort. Gobble will have to be careful with the homer happy Mets tonight.

2b Jose Vidro drove in 2 runs early, and the Mets answered back in the next frame with one of their own. No more runs were scored until the 8th when Vidro hit his 25th homerun into the bleachers in right center, making it 4-1. Jhonny Peralta added 2 more insurance runs, his 6th, a a new career high, and the Expos go on to win it, 6-3. Jimmy Gobble pitched eight and two thirds innings, giving up 3 runs on 6 hits with 116 pitches, and Quentin Kaussen came in to face the dangerous Cliff Floyd and got the final out. Expos win, 6-3. Jose Vidro is the player of the game with a homer and 4 RBI.

Game 2: Pedro Astacio (8-7, 3.58 ERA) vs. Al Leiter (6-9, 4.84 ERA)

Because of his recent struggles Jeff Duncan (who went 0-5 with 3K last game) was moved to the leadoff spot and Jayson Werth (1-2 3BB yesturday) will move down to #2.

In a very peculiar move Al Leiter will pitch for the 2nd straight day, despite throwing 124 pitches yesturday. What happened was Leiter lost 6 points of movement before todays game, and was demoted to the #5 hole. The #5 starter was due to pitch. This is a rare occurance but incredibly stupid. He will face the Expos two hander (I dont know if hes left or right handed, but I can assume he's two handed, I think.) Pedro Astacio pitched well in his last outing against the Mets and will get the ball tonight. The Mets will need to snap out of their week-long offensive slump and get Leiter out of there as fast as possible if they stand a chance tonight.

It was easy picking for the Expos, who scored 5 runs in as many outs. After a towering homerun was hit off Ken Harvey's bat, Leiter was yanked for Ramiro Mendoza. The former Yankee has an ERA of 8.8, and has totally lost it. Promptly after Ramiro Mendoza came in LF Juan Rivera hit a homerun off him. This was going to be a long night for the Mets.
1B Jason Phillips came in to pinch hit in the 3rd, and then stayed in the game to pitch! He pitched 3 scoreless innings, but the Expos held on to win, 7-1. Jason was not credited in the box score for his efforts. The Mets fall 7 games back after this loss, and seem to be digging themselves an early grave.

NEW YORK ip h bb hr r er k pit ERA
Leiter 1.2 7 1 1 5 5 1 43 5.15
Mendoza 1.1 5 1 1 2 2 1 33 8.66
Wheeler 2.0 0 0 0 0 0 3 27 4.57
Affeldt 1.0 0 1 0 0 0 0 17 2.41
TOTALS 6.0 12 3 2 7 7 5 120

Ramiro got credit in his stats for Phillips's pitching. He entered the game with an ERA of about 8.8, as noted above. This has to be the weirdest game i've ever seen.

Game 3: Eric Milton (13-8, 3.77 ERA) vs. Steve Trachsel (14-6, 3.91 ERA)

This is the last time the Expos and Mets will meet during the regular season. The Expos go for their 90th win of the season and their best record in 14 years while the Mets try to salvage the series on this sunny Tuesday afternoon. If the Mets are to lose and fall 8 behind it is going to be very difficult for them to win the divison.

Jose Vidro comes through early in this one with a 3 run homerun and the Expos take the lead 4-1 in the third. The 10 year Expo and newly appointed captain has really picked up his game. He leads the team in batting average (.336) and homeruns (26) and is the team MVP. The Mets crept back with solo shots my Mike Cameron in the 4th and former Expo Tony Batista in the 5th, and then Hank Blalock drove in a run to tie the game in the 6th. Corky Miller unloaded a solo shot to leadoff the next inning. Trevor Hoffman pitched to scoreless innings, and then in the 9th the 19 year old phenom closer Quentin Kaussen had a runner on 2nd with 2 out but got Mike Cameron to fly out. Kaussen gets his 27th save and the Expos win 5-4, pick up the sweep, their 90th win, and extend their lead in the NL east to 8 games.

From here on out, the Expos have a 3 game series with the NL central leading Cubs, and the rest of the teams they face are under .500, and 9 of their last 18 games are against last place teams. A 100 win season is certainly a possibilty here.

The Mets are facing mostly the same teams we are, but to make up 8 games is unlikely. Look's like the Expos may be hanging a 2006 Divison Champs banner up on their rafters.

Looks like its time to compare the 2006 Jeff Duncan with the 2005 Jeff Duncan!

Compare Last First G AVG AB 2B HR BB K SB R RBI SLG OBP
2006 Duncan Jeff 132 0.321 532 28 13 80 100 11 91 75 0.477 0.421 (9-13-2006)
2005 Duncan Jeff 139 0.22 531 19 4 73 118 9 75 44 0.298 0.324

What a difference a year makes. In the (pretty much) same amount of at bats Duncan raised his batting average 101 points, tripled his home runs total, showed better plate discipline, scored and drove in a good deal more runs, and raised his OPS 276 points!, from a weak .622 to a quite strong .898. Let's hope that Duncan can carry his strong play this season into the playoffs. Our magic number for the Expos first playoff since 1993 is 7.

GM24

06-24-2004, 10:19 AM

September 22nd 2006
Expos clinch playoff berth

With an 8-7 win at Philidephia, their 94th victory on the season, the Expos have clinched a playoff berth.
It looks like the we'll be facing the cubs, who we swept. The series after that, the Braves swept us. It must of been alot of pressure to win a game and get that berth. But we did it.

September 26, 2006
1B Ken Harvey out 16 days with pulled groin
The last thing I wanted was an injury. He'll be out until October 12th, which is 9 days after the season ends. So he'll probably miss the 1st round. Great. Harvey, 27, finishes with his best season yet, hitting .304 with 26 bombs and 103 RBI.

September 28th, 2006
CF Jeff Duncan out 17 days with a spranied finger

UGH! THat was the last thing I needed. The comeback player of the year was hitting .324 with a .422 OBP, 12 SB (alot on my team) and 102 runs scored. How am I suppose to replace that? He'll be out until October 15th.

So now I have C/1B Michel Hernandez playing 1B, who is at least a good contact hiter (he was hitting .313 in AAA) but average otherwise, and has only 13 career major league at bats. And Hiroshi Yamamoto, my 3rd round pick in 2005, who has spent the last two seasons on my bench, will play CF and bat 6th. Yamamoto has an 81 contact rating and has hit .279 in 140 at bats this year, but he certainly isnt the defensive player that Duncan is.

This is such a huge blow to my team. I now have four rookies in my starting lineup: RF Jayson Werth, 3B Zachary Wolcott, Hernandez and Yamamoto. I now have Wolcott, who hasnt shown me much this year, batting cleanup, Hernandez batting 5th, and Yamamoto batting 6th. I have 3 starters on the DL (remember Victor Martinez?) To top it off Juan Rivera and Jhonny Peralta are unavaliable (they will be back for the playoffs) What is my lineup gonna look like?? Why does this happen to a team with a B- medical staff that is the 10th highest paid?

Well I watched the game... I watched Greg Maddux earn his 319th career victory as we lost, 2-1. And this, mind you, is not the Greg Maddux of old... his ERA was 4.7 coming into the game. We had no offense. We had our 2006 3rd round pick LF Tony Brodsky make his major league debut and hit 8th... this guy hit under .200 in AAA this year! (This kid has a peak of 85 though, so look out). Alex Leslie pitched another great game in his 3rd career start (in place of Eric Milton who had a 1 day injury), giving up just 2 runs in 6.2 innings. Man is that kid gonna be great. Even though we lost, we clinched the divison today! The team record is 97-60 now... our next 5 games are against last place teams, so we could win 100 games! Will we do it? Find out next post..

GM24

06-24-2004, 06:24 PM

September/October Record: 19-11
Overall Record: 100-62 (1st in NL East)
Batting Average: .281 (2nd in NL)
On Base: .352 (2nd in NL)
Opponent On Base: .323 (3rd in NL)
Home Record: 55-26
Away Record: 45-36
Homeruns: 137 (14th in NL)
Stolen Bases: 60 (Last in NL)
Save %: 69.6% (7th in NL)
CG: 24 (1st in NL)
Fielding .981 (T5th in NL)
Defense Average (T2nd in NL)

I think I'm going to lower my pitch through trouble and high pitch count a bit.... I have a bullpen I can rely on.

Of the 8 playoff teams, 6 of them convert in 70% or more of their save situations. The save % statistic probably has the strongest correlation to win% than any other, including production. And stolen bases has the least.

Well I got that 100th win on the last day of the season, Tony Rylance pitched 8 innings of shutout ball to get his 18th and final win of the season.

A quick look at finances, the Expos have made $9.8 million so far, and had the team on national broadcast all the time. The team payroll is $35.7M, and the revenue thus far is $63.5M. The Expos have $14.0M in cash and counting. This sucessful season should improve the Expos D rated fan loyalty.

The Phillies made $20 million this year and catapulted out of debt, they will likely be fiercely active in the Free Agent market.

It was mostly a bad year for teams financially though... only 6 of the 30 teams made money... Boston, Toronto, KC, Seattle, St. Louis, and Florida went into debt. The Yankees in the mean time made money despite a $177M payroll.

NL Leaders

Batting Average:
1. Carl Crawford (COL) .349
2. Alex Cintron (ARI) .345
3. Austin Kearns (CIN) .340
...
6. Jose Vidro (MON) .335

LF Carl Crawford was signed as a FA to start left in favor of young LF Miguel Cabrera, who had been traded to Colorado with Tony Armas Jr. and Khalil Green for Zachary Wolcott. Crawford, 23, has developed into an outstanding player who was second in SB with 41 and is a favorite for the Gold Glove. Alex Cintron has hit better than .316 each of the last four years. The 26 year old SS is a free agent after 2007... he should command a very high salary. Austin Kearns had an excellent year for the Reds in a disapointing season.

On Base Leaders:
1. Austin Kearns (CIN) .435
T2. Manny Ramirez (CHC) .422
T2. Jeff Duncan (MON) .422
...
6. Jose Vidro (MON) .410

If Austin Kearns had played more games this year he would be a lock for the MVP award (he only played 132 games, just 31 HR.) But serious MVP consideration will go to the dangerous LF Manny Ramirez, who before this season signed a 7 year, 86.1M contract. He was worth every penny, putting up near triple corwn numbers and driving in 141 runs! Jeff Duncan had a suprising year, he will be missed for the first round of the playoffs against Manny's Cubs...

Homers
1. Jim Edmonds (COL) 48
2. Manny Ramirez (CHC) 46
3. Richard Hidalgo (ATL) 41
4. Morgan Ensberg (ATL) 40
...
6. Carl Everett (HOU) 38

Five of the six players atop the NL HR leader board were free agent signings from the past two years. Jim Edmonds put up very similar numbers to last years and liked his new home quite a bit. His old one finished last in the NL central... Richard Hidalgo and Morgan Ensberg, who were 2nd tier free agents signed by the Braves in 2005, each hit 40 homeruns. I still dislike the Braves. Former Expo Carl Everett rejoined Houston, where he played in the late 90s, and the 33 year old enjoyed a career year, hitting 38 homeruns and collecting 109 RBIs, both career highs. I wouldnt expect him to repeat those numbers.

Wins
1. Jae Weong Seo (NYM) 20
2. Tony Rylance (MON) 18
T3. Brad Penny (ARI) 17
T3 Roy Oswalt (HOU) 17

Even though I consider wins to be a statstic of secondary importance, I wanted to point out that Tony Rylance won 18 of them. Jae Weong Seo looks like he'll win the Cy Young, he was 20-4 with a 2.86 ERA.

ERA
1. A.J. Burnett (FLA) 2.04
2. Joel Piniero (CHC) 2.73
3. Randy Johnson (LAD) 2.75

What do these three pitchers all have in common? They won just 12 games each despite great seasons. Which is why they wont get Cy Youngs. Burnett and Johnson were injured and missed 7 or 8 starts, otherwise they wouldve had more wins. The 41 year old Johnson collected his 4500th strikeout on September 29th, his last start of the regular season... possibly his last of any regular season ever.

However Randy will be pitching in the playoffs. His Dodgers won an NL best 107 games with the help of a phenomenal pitching staff (3.39 team ERA) and the best bullpen I have ever seen. (The five that will pitch in the playoffs all have ERAs under 3.4!) The pen is led by NL save leader Eric Gange and the best setup man in the game Guillermo Mota (109.1 IP, 1.89 ERA). It's agood thing I dont face these guys in the 1st round.

Here is how the playoffs match up
AL Divisonal Series

Rangers (101-61)
Orioles (93-69)

Yankees (109-53)
White Sox (98-64)

NL Divisonal Series

Dodgers (107-55)
Mets (93-69)

Expos (100-62)
Cubs (86-76)

The Rangers are talented offensively, a very young team and impressively put together, but I question their pitching staff... the starting pitching is good at times but is not going to dominante strong teams... 35 year old closer Troy Percival had a terrible season, he will need to regain his 2004 form (34 SV 2.00 ERA) or else the Rangers could get upset in the 1st round.

The Orioles have some holes in the batting order but overall have a well rounded offense that will be able to expolit the Rangers pithcing. Their 1-2-3 SPs had career years (ERAs under 4) and have great arms in the bullpen. If the starting staff can translate their regular season success into the playoffs I can see this team going a long way.

The Yankees have the best team in baseball and it shows in their offense... they have 4 all star hitters in DH Derek Jeter (.322) GG caliver C Yorvit Torreabla (.332) MVP caliver SS Alex Rodriguez (.294 54 HR) and Magglio Ordonez (.343 38 HR). The team is rounded out by above average hitters... there are no weak spots in this lineup. Starting pitching really sttruglled for this team... Javier Vazquez is a real ace but he posted a 4.44 ERA... the rest of the starting lineup is not that good. The pen is great though, utilizing Ricardo Rincon (2.85 ERA) and closer Mariano Rivera (40 SV 2.58 ERA) as an effective 1-2 punch.

The White Sox anchor their fairly strong offense with 3B Joe Crede, who hit .330 with 38 HR. The White Sox strength lies in their pitching. SP Mark Buerhle and SP Esteban Loaiza are among the leagues elite. Billy Koch refound himself after 3 years of struggling with the Sox, saving 45 games and blowing only 3, and he has an effective henchmen in the near unhittable Damaso Marte.

In the NL, the Dodgers have solid but relatively ineffective offense. Their leadoff men will need to get on base more. However the DOdgers have a premier defense, and have assembled one of the all time great pitching staffs, as metioned above. The decison to go with Kaz Ishii as their #2 starter (who walked 120) over Randy Johnson is questionable. If Kaz can regain his control then the Dodgers are a World Series favorite.

The defending champion Mets improved their record by 2 wins, and are looking to win 11 in the playoffs. The Mets have a homerun happy ballclub... that is also strkeout happy... 6 of the 8 starters struck out 100 or more times. The Mets offense has a low OBA collectively, but have a knck for stringing together big innings. The Mets pitching staff is good, SP Steve Trachsel is a sturdy veteran and SP Jae Weong Seo has established himself as one of the best this year, but an injury to Braden Looper early in the season really hurts this team... his repalcement Scott Strickland has blown 7 saves in 27 chances.

The Cubs have the least wins out of any playoff ballclub but they certainly arent mal-equppid to win it all. Aside from sluggers J.D Drew and Manny Ramirez the team is poor offensively... Aaron Boone, who hit .263 with 23 HR and 25SBs in the leadoff spot is their next best hitter. The Cubs have had one of the best pitching staffs for several years now. Mark Prior, Kerry Wood, Matt Clement, and Joel Piniero are a dangerous four, they all have OVR ratings in the 90s! The Cubs also have an effective pen with no weak spots... however closer Joe Borowski is injured and wont be avaliable until Game 5 in the divisonal series vs. the Expos at best.

The Expos come into the playoffs battered offensively... 1B Ken Harvey (.304 26HR) and outstanding CF Jeff Duncan (.324 13HR) will miss the divisonal series vs. the Cubs. Starting C Victor Martinez had his season end early and only played 68 games. These are imporantant pieces of the Expos lineup. Jose Vidro anchors this (slapped together) lineup (.335 30HR .410 OBA) The Expos lack consitent production from the bottom of the order and will need rookie 3B Zachary Wolcott (.253 12 HR) to play at the high level he is capable of acheiving. The Expos pitching staff is solid and consistent, the top 3 SPs, Eric Milton, Pedro Astacio, and Tony Rylance produced ERAs of under 4. The bullpen is phenomenal. Ty Kirn has played especially well lately, and coupled with veteran Trevor Hoffman and the young phenom Quentin Kaussen (2.41 ERA 32 SV) the opponents could find themselves playing 6 inning games.

Of the 8 playoff teams I consider my team the weakest, espcially due to injuries. This was a team built for the future and lacks a true ace and is lacking a real threatening hitter (aside from Vidro). Neither Juan Rivera (.278 22HR) or Zach Wolcott is that player... yet. We have homefield advantage, which works into our favor. If we can squeak by the Cubs and get Harvey and Duncan back, then maybe we have a chance. Certianly, a great challenge awaits us, and I cant wait how it will turn out. In the next post I'll do comparisons of the Expos and Cubs, and then recap games 1 and 2.

GM24

06-25-2004, 12:55 AM

EXPOS Last First AVG HR SB OBP MONvCHC AVG HR SB OBP CUBS Last First
RF Werth Jayson 0.304 14 17 0.396 < 0.263 23 25 0.339 3B Boone Aaron
1B Hernan. Michel 0.471 1 0 0.514 > 0.265 4 12 0.324 2B Grudzi. Mark
2B Vidro Jose 0.335 30 4 0.41 < 0.28 34 6 0.366 RF Drew J.D.
LF Rivera Juan 0.278 22 3 0.335 >> 0.336 46 1 0.422 RF Ramirez Manny
3B Wolcott Zach 0.253 12 3 0.345 Even 0.214 29 11 0.331 1B Lee Derrek
CF Yamam. Hiroshi 0.276 1 3 0.339 Even 0.281 7 2 0.327 CF Rowand Aaron
C Miller Corky 0.252 4 1 0.303 < 0.225 11 7 0.287 SS Hall Bill
SS Peralta Jhonny 0.218 6 8 0.3 < 0.232 3 2 0.304 C Bako Paul

Team Last First ERA W L SV MONvCHC Last First ERA W L SV CUBS
SP1 Milton Eric 3.89 14 9 0 > Wood Kerry 3.43 12 7 0 SP1
SP2 Astacio Pedro 3.88 12 8 0 >> Prior Mark 3.61 15 10 0 SP2
SP3 Rylance Tony 3.72 18 8 0 > Clement Matt 3.96 13 10 0 SP3
SP4 Ohka Tomo 4.05 11 7 0 >> Pineiro Joel 2.73 12 5 0 SP4

Closr Kaussn Quentn 2.41 4 1 32 < Bradfo. Chad 3.7 4 4 6 Setup
Setup Hoffman Trevor 3.09 10 3 12 < Ayala Luis 3.88 2 6 2 Short
Short Kirn Ty 3.47 9 6 1 << Junge Eric 3.1 4 4 3 Mid
Mid Toldeo Luis 3.99 2 3 1 < Farnsw. Kyle 4.75 3 9 1 Mid
Long Gobble Jimmy 4.39 15 9 0 Even Mitre Sergio 5.4 5 4 0 Long
X Borows. Joe 3.22 2 4 25 Injury*
*Ava. For Game 5

Offense:
After J.D Drew and Manny Ramirez, the Cubs have a particularly vunerable offense. Expect Manny to get intentionally walked with two out pretty much all the time. My team on the other hand, well, our offense is at about at the same level as the Cubs with our #2, 4, and 6 hitters out with injuries. Michel Hernandez and Hiroshi Yamamoto are fairly good offensive players. Michel has a good swing and can hit the ball to all fields, and Hiroshi is a pretty good bad ball hitter who strikes out (and walks) rarely. Corky Miller, Victor Marinez's replacement, has average hitting skills but has played poorly, striking out once per 4.6 ABs. The key for the Expos will be to set the table for Vidro and Rivera. Jayson Werth is no stranger to scoring runs, he lead the NL in runs scored with 138. I have overlooked the 25 year old rookie this season, he is a consistent and steady producer and a prime candidate for the Rookie of the year award. With Werth, contributions from Hernandez and Yamamoto, and some more production from Wolcott, this team should be OK offensively.
Advantage: Expos, slightly

Defense:
The Expos were a team built with defense in mind. RF Jayson Werth and SS Jhonny Peralta could win gold gloves at their respective positions. C Corky Miller is a defensive standout who is great at blocking balls. OF Hiroshi Yamamoto is not Jeff Duncan in centerfield however, he is merely adequate defensively. 1B Michel Hernandez is actually a better 1st basemen defensively than Ken Harvey despite learning the position 2 weeks ago. 3B Zachary Wolcott improved his defense a great deal at 3rd, all said and done his Fielding Pct is .949. The Cubs have an average defense... Aaron Boone has a hose at the hot corner and at '6 "2 is rangy. CF Aaron Rowand has as arm in center and shouldnt be run on... not that my team will ever run. SS Bill Hall is a liabilty at a demanding position, he made 24 errors and is a trainwreck at short.
Advantage: Expos

Pitching:
The Cubs have the strongest 1-4 starting pitchers assembled since the Braves of the mid 90s. Wood, Prior, Clement, and Piniero could be aces on half the teams in the majors. This will be the greatest hurdle for the Expos, with their depreciated offense and all. Milton, Astacio, Rylance, and Ohka arent a bad four either. Milton is a very consistent pitcher, he is the ace and best pitcher on this staff. Tony Rylance is a rising star and will start game 3, and veterans Pedro Astacio and Tomo Ohka round out the starting four. The Expos have a very good bullpen which is anchored by Quentin Kaussen, the 19 year old who was drafted 3rd in 2005. Trevor Hoffman had a few bad apperances with the Spos but he was mostly effective. Ty Kirn had a fantastic final month and a half in which he was unstoppable. The cubs have a solid pen that includes former Expo Luis Ayala, who was included in the deal for Eric Milton 2 1/2 years ago. The injury to closer Joe Borowski puts the Cubs at a disadvantage but they have great releivers in Chad Bradford and Luis Ayala.
Advantage: Cubs

The Expos came off a 100 win season but look vunerable to this 86 win team.

GM24

06-25-2004, 05:36 PM

Game 1:
Kerry Wood vs. Eric Milton

Olympic Stadium was packed for the first time in a very long time as the Cubs and Expos meet for game 1 of the divisonal series.

The game was very tense.. no runs were scored until Zachary Wolcott reached on error to load the bases with none out in the 4th. Yamamoto dribbled weakly to the catcher, and Corky Miller popped up, but Jhonny Peralta drew a walk to force in the first run of the game. Meanwhile Eric Milton had a no hitter going until the 6th inning. Mark Gruzdielanek hit a 2 run homerun to give the Cubs the lead, 2-1. Meanwhile the Expos had left the bases drunk three straight innings, which was very frusterating. But in the 7th Juan Rivera hit a 2 run bomb to make it 3-2 Expos, and Kerry Wood was taken out. In the next inning Antonio Perez hit a pinch hit solo HR to make it 4-2. In the top of the ninth Quentin Kaussen came in to face the heart of the order, and delivered. Expos win 4-2 and lead the series 1-0!

Vidro and Rivera combined to go 6 for 6! Eric Milton pitched 8 innings, striking out 9 and allowing 1 walk... Cubs star Manny Ramirez went 0-4 with 2 strikeouts... the Mets took game one of their series against the Dodgers

Game 2:
Matt Clement vs. Pedro Astacio

There's a buzz around the city of Montreal about the revived Expos... could this team be for real?

In the first inning, Hiroshi Yamamoto is unable to produce in a bases loaded situation again. Matt Clement walked two that inning and got himself out of huge trouble. Juan Rivera comes up big again, hitting a solo shot into the upper deck and putting the first run on the board. In the next frame, Pedro Astacio opened the inning by walking the Cubs two best hitters in succesion. But Derek Lee grounded into a double play, and Aaron Rowand ground out to end the threat. In the 5th the Cubs added a run to make it 1-1. Pinch hitting for Pedro Astacio in the 8th, Antonio Perez hits a leadoff single. After Jayson Werth made out, Perez stole second, and then Michel Hernandez, who hadnt gotten a hit all series, was intentionally walked to face Jose Vidro my most dangerous hitter. Clement was able to get out of the inning, the Expos left the bases loaded again. In the bottom of the 9th the Expos had runnners on 1st and 2nd and nobody out with Jhonny Peralta up to bat. Perlata struck out, and Brendan Larson came in to pinch hit, which I did not want, but he hit a single... but Yamamoto got thrown out at home! Luis Ayala came in to pitch to Jayson Werth and struck him out, and we were going into extra innings. We came so close. Kaussen retired the Cubs 1-2-3 in the 10th. In the bottom of the 10th, Hernandez drew a leadoff walk and Vidro came to the plate. Vidro, my best hitter... lays down a sac bunt. OK, productive out. Then the Cubs intentionally walk Juan Rivera to face Zachary Wolcott. Here's the call:

"Bradford deals, the pitch... SWUNG ON AND HIT DEEP TO LEFT... RAMIREZ GOING BACK, ON HIS HORSE... GONE! [crowd erupts]

The Expos find an unlikely hero in rookie Zachary Wolcott and go to Chicago up 2 games to none.

Game 3: Expos at Cubs
Joel Piniero vs, Tony Rylance

The Cubs turn to Joel Piniero, perhaps one of the most dominant pitchers in the game, for Game 3 of the Divisonal Series. He will square off against rookie Tony Rylance, who won 18 games in the regular season. Whatever the outcome, it should be an exciting Sunday evening at Wrigley Field.

The Expos strike in the first inning. Jose Vidro doubles down the left field line to score Michel Hernandez around from first. Expos lead 1-0. Meanwhile Tony Rylance was dominant, striking out 9 hitters in the game.

Things got dicey in the 8th, when Bill Hall hit a leadoff double and Paul Bako was pinch hit for by Sammy Sosa. The future HOFer is a shadow of what he once was, but he still has his power, hitting 11 homeruns in 119 at bats. I wanted Quentin to come in. Sosa was intenationally walked. Pat Burrell pinch hit for Joel Piniero, and he hit a 3 run shot. Things got dicey there, as the Cubs scored 5 runs in the inning. 5-1 Cubs.

The Expos had their 3-4-5 hitters coming up in the top of the 9th. Chad Bradford came in to pitch. With one out Rivera doubled and Wolcott was intentionally walked. Up came Hiroshi Yamamoto. He flew out to right. Corky Miller struck out, and the Cubs won Game 3, 5-1.

Game 4: Tomo Ohka vs. Mark Prior

The Expos will try their luck against Mark Prior, who is arguably the best pitcher of the league. Tomo Ohka will need to pitch dominantly and keep the Expos in the game in what should be another pitchers duel.

Aaron Rowand and the Cubs struck first, he hit a solo shot in the 2nd inning to put the Cubs up 1-0. Mark Prior, who hit .207 this season, then added an RBI single in the same inning... and stole a base. Vidro made a fielding error at 2nd that allowed another run to score. The inning then ended when Aaron Boone was caught stealing second. At the end of the second, Cubs lead 3-0.

In the 8th with the Cubs up 5-2, things were getting interesting. Luis Ayala came in to pitch, and then the Expos loaded the bases with no one out. Jhonny Peralta popped up, and Brendan Larson came into pinch hit for the pitcher instead of Jamey Carroll for some stupid reason, and he grounds into a double play. Great.

Cubs win 5-2.

Game 5: Eric Milton vs. Kerry Wood

It's a best of five series. Loser goes home. This game though, I'm calling the shots if I can. Switch around the roster in the middle of the game if I have to. I'm tired of the computer using the wrong hitter to pinch hit for. I'll also lower high pitch count and pitch through trouble again... leaving Rylance out too long really cost us in game 3.

Toby Calande will play 1st today instead of Michel Hernandez, who is out for 5 days. Calande was the 5th round draft pick of the Expos in 2005. He is an average hitter and will bat 8th.

The lineup was juggled around, and it looks as if it has paid off so far... the Expos scored a run in the 1st inning off of a Juan Rivera sac fly, and the Jose Vidro knocked in a run the next AB. After one Expos lead 2-0.

I got to hear a sound effect I had never heard before... Paul Bako allowed a passed ball and it was a guy whistling or something.

Kerry Wood clearly doesnt have his control today. He walked three straight hitters to load the bases, got two harmless outs, and then walked Jayson Werth to force a run in. Expos lead 3-0 heading into the 5th.

The Cubs crept closer... in the 7th Derek Lee hit a homerun to break his 0-15 slump... now its a 1-16 slump. Cubs up 3-2.

In the top of the 9th the score stood at 3-2. Derek Lee looks on as the bullpen gates open for Quentin Kaussen. Derek had struggled all season. He would look for redemption here. He grounded to third. Aaron Rowand flied out to center. Bill Hall struck out on three pitches.

The Expos win the divisonal series, 3 games to 2! What a remarkable series!

Now the Expos will go on to face the 107 win Dodger team. Ken Harvey will be back for Game 1, but Jeff Duncan wont be ready until Game 3. All that is coming up.

GM24

06-26-2004, 10:16 PM

NLCS Preview: Expos (100-62) vs. Dodgers (107-55)

EXPOS Last First AVG HR SB OBP MONsvLA AVG HR SB OBP Last First LAD
RF Werth Jayson 0.304 14 17 0.396 < 0.267 1 2 0.332 Thurst. Joe 2B
2B Vidro Jose 0.335 30 4 0.41 << 0.295 20 6 0.353 Gerut Jody RF
1B Harvey Ken 0.304 26 2 0.379 > 0.275 14 11 0.381 Bradley Milton CF
LF Rivera Juan 0.278 22 3 0.335 < 0.31 32 8 0.366 Beltre Adrian 3B
3B Wolcott Zach 0.253 12 3 0.345 < 0.29 24 7 0.368 Cepick. Matt LF
CF Yamam. Hiroshi 0.276 1 3 0.339 > 0.282 25 2 0.365 Ross Dave C
C Miller Corky 0.252 4 1 0.303 Even 0.327 5 0 0.397 Clark Tony 1B
SS Peralta Jhonny 0.218 6 8 0.3 > 0.295 15 8 0.344 Uribe Juan SS

CF, DL Jeff Duncan 0.324 13 12 0.422 > 0.271 15 4 0.359 Barnes Larry 1B, DL
*Both ava. For Game 3*

EXPOS Last First ERA W L SV MONvLAD Last First POS ERA W L SV
SP1 Rylance Tony 3.72 18 8 0 < Ishii Kaz SP1 4.74 11 7 0
SP2 Astacio Pedro 3.88 12 8 0 Even Weaver Jeff SP2 4.12 16 12 0
SP3 Milton Eric 3.89 14 9 0 < Johnsn Randy SP3 2.75 12 4 1
SP4 Ohka Tomo 4.05 11 7 0 >> Perez Odalis SP4 3.02 13 7 0

Closr Kaussn Quentn 2.41 4 1 32 < Gagne Eric Closr 3.28 1 5 41
Setup Hoffman Trevor 3.09 10 3 12 Even Mota Guille. Setup 1.89 10 4 1
Short Kirn Ty 3.47 9 6 1 Even Shuey Paul Short 2.57 10 3 0
Mid Toldeo Luis 3.99 2 3 1 < Hawkin. LaTroy Mid 3.39 4 3 0
Long Gobble Jimmy 4.39 15 9 0 < Downs Scott Long 3.54 14 5 0

Offense:
What you notice right away is that the top of the lineup for the Expos set the table better than the DOdgers. Jayson Werth led the NL in runs scored, as you know. Jose Vidro is a well rounded offensive player who get on base 41% of the time. When Jeff Duncan comes back, he will bat 2nd in the lineup, the Expos hope that 2006 continues to be his year. The heart of the order is the DOdgers strength; Milton Bradley had an off year but is a tremendous offensive and defensive player. 3B Adrian Beltre is the cornerstone of the Dodgers offense, he's worn Dodger Blue for 9 years. Batting 5th is former Expo Matt Cepicky, who was traded along side Scott Downs for CF Dave Roberts two years ago. Cepicky had a great year and has developed into a good offensive player. The Dodgers get solid contributions from the bottom of their order. Dave Ross is good at hitting for power, and Tony Clark, who is filling in for injured Larry Barnes, is a true slugger, although his eyesight has deteroriated. Juan Uribe put up career high numbers but he is only average skillwise. I dont think that the Dodgers offense is lethal, but when clicking on all cylinders it can give pitchers a good deal of trouble. The Expos will need the heart of the order, which hit very well last series, to produce runs in timely situations. The Expos left ALOT of runners on base last series versus the Cubs.. the bottom of the order will need to produce for the Expos to suceed.
Advantage: Talent wise, Expos. But the Dodgers have more proven players,

Defense:
1B Ken Harvey is good offensively but is slighty aloof defensively...when Jeff Duncan comes back to play center that will be a tremendous improvement over Yamamoto. The Dodgers understand the importance of defense, and have the best in the league... CF Milton Bradley and RF Jody Gerut have cannons for arms. They also cover alot of ground in the outfield. LF Matt Cepicky is not quite as talented out there... he has virtually no arm strength and is run on mercilessly. SS Juan Uribe probably isnt worth the $16 million per year he is paid, but has a phenomenal arm and outstanding range. 3B Adrian Beltre is equally blessed with such arm and range; any groundball hit to the left side is a sure out. C Dave Ross has a very strong arm and is tough to run on. So the Dodgers have 5 GG caliber fielders. But 2B Joe Thurston is not one of those players.. he can make any routine play look difficult and doesnt make many at that. So the 'spos should hit fly balls to left and grounders to right... what a tough D. The Expos defense is good too though, there are no glaring weaknesses and with Jeff Duncan back it should be quite good.
Advantage: Before Duncan, Dodgers, after Duncan still Dodgers, slightly.

Pitching:
The Dodgers have a very experienced staff, but dont overlook the Expos solid pitchers. Kaz Ishii walked 120 hitters last year, expect him to get in trouble against the walk happy Expos. When Jeff Weaver takes the mound, well, you dont know which Jeff Weaver youre getting. Weaver only lasted 2 innings in his start against the Mets in the divisonal series. If his curveball isnt there he can get pounded. At the same time he can be an ace-quality pitcher. 41-year old Randy Johnson has been successful even though his slider doesnt snap the way it used to... he stills throws 98 miles an hour though, even if his fastball is his only good pitch nowandays. Odalis Perez is the real ace of this staff, he possesses excellent control and has an impossible curveball that has hitters buckling their knees. Tony Rylance, Eric Milton, and Tomo Ohka have pinpoint control on their pitchers. They will establish the strike zone early, and live on the outside corner while coming up and in on occasion to keep a hitter honest. Eric Milton has excellent control of a wide aresnal of effective pitches... he has had two great starts in the playoffs and can really dominate a game. This starting staff can keep a team in a game if they are struggling offensively, and the quality of the bullpen rivals that of even the Dodgers. Kaussen, Hoffman and Kirn not only sounds like the name of a legal firm but the three have not allowed a run in the playoffs. Eric Gagne, the Dodgers closer is a flamethrower who throws in excess of 100mph. The best you can do is be patient and get a pitch you can hit, he is known to hang a curveball on occasion. Guilemero Mota is impossible to hit, and Paul Shuey is an accomplished veteran who has pitched 706 career games. The Expos pen, I feel, is an assembalnce of talent that even the Dodgers can not match.
Advantage: Expos

Although the Dodgers won 107 games last year that arent unvunerable... the Expos have a chance in this one. The Expos dont face dominant pitching until they travel home for game 3. If we can split Game 1 and 2, we will be in a good position to win this series.

GM24

06-27-2004, 03:07 PM

Game 1: Tony Rylance vs. Kaz Ishii
Kaz Ishii intentionally walked Juan Rivera in the 1st to face Zachary Wolcott, and that turned out to be a mistake, as Wolcott lined a double into right, scoring Jayson Werth from 2nd and Juan Rivera all the way from 1st to make it 2-0 Expos in the early going. Then Zachary decided to steal 3rd with 2 out, which made me very upset. In the bottom frame Milton Bradley, who has hit well in the playoffs, hit a solo shot and the Expos lead was just 1. In the 6th Milton Bradley drove in another run to tie the game. Meanwhile Kaz Ishii retired 19 consecutive batters through the 7th inning. In the bottom of the 7th, Tony Rylance made a throwing error with two out to score a run from 3rd, making it 3-2 Dodgers. In the 9th the Dodgers had one last chance against flamethrower Eric Gagne with the top of the order coming up. Jayson Werth drew a leadoff walk. Jose Vidro laid down a sacrifice bunt... I need Jeff Duncan back so he can do these things for me. Ken Harvey was intentionally walked, and Juan Rivera come up. And grounds into a double play.
Dodgers win 3-2

Game 2: Pedro Astacio vs. Jeff Weaver

This is an important game for the Expos. They came into LA looking for a split, lets see if they can get it. The Expos strike first again, scoring 2 in the 1st to make it 2-0 Expos. In the 2nd Matt Cepicky tripled and scored on a ground out to make it 2-1 Expos. Meanwhile the Expos had 9 get on base through 5 innings, Jeff Weaver was dodging bullets out there... he was lifted for a pinch hitter after the 5th... Meanwhile Pedro Astacio has allowed just one hit through 5. But in the 6th the Dodgers scored 2 runs to make it 3-2... the Expos had better learn to score after the 1st inning at DOdger Stadium. In the 8th the Expos had the bases loaded with 2 out... and Jhonny Peralta was pinch hit for by Brendan Larson!! NO!! Jamey Caroll is in the top spot! He should pinch hit! Larson is on the end of the bench! Larson grounds out to end the inning. In the bottom of the 9th with one out and Gagne pitching, Jose Vidro bunts the runner to 2nd... this bunting AI needs to be looked at... Harvey is intentionally walked to get toJuan Rivera, who strikes out, Dodgers win another frusterating game, 3-2.

Well the Dodgers lead the series, 2 games to 0. I only hope I have better luck at home, which was the case lsat series, I've yet to win a playoff game away. Well we've really hung in there, both those games couldve gone one way or another. We could still win this thing. Jeff Duncan is coming back besides. Game 3 coming up in the next post.

GM24

06-28-2004, 01:11 AM

Game 3: Eric Milton vs. Randy Johnson

This is the biggest game the Expos have played in a long time. 46,500 Canuks pile into Olympic Stadium, paying $40 a ticket. The Expos have Jeff Duncan back healthy, and their best SP on the mound. Let's win this thing.

In his first AB since the injury Jeff Duncan hits a double. Welcome back Jeff Duncan. Unfourtunately he failed to score. In the bottom of the 2nd C Dave Ross hit a 2 run homerun to put the first runs on the board. It would be the Expos turn to come back from a 2-0 defecit.

In the 3rd Randy Johnson got himself into trouble, the bases were loaded with none out and Juan Rivera up to bat. But Rivera, and Harvey struck out and Wolcott grounded out. 7 baserunners and no runs through 3. How unlucky! In the 5th we had the bases loaded with 2 out, this time Wolcott drew a walk and we scored our first run, and then Corky Miller hit a single to score one more. Peralta walked, and the Expos took the lead. In a suprising move, Eric Milton was pinch hit for to try and take advantage of the situation... i will need to tinker with the pinch hit slider. Michel Hernandez popped up to end the threat.

Ty Kirn came in with the Expos leading by 1 in the 6th inning, and struck out the side! But then in the 7th he gave up a leadoff HR to Jody Gerut, and then walked Dave Ross. Take this guy out! He wasnt taken out, two batters later Nijel Dear hit a double and the Expos take the lead, 4-3. Ugh. Then he gets taken out. The Dodgers score another run, and entering the bottom of the 7th we are down 5-3.

In that frame, Guillermo Mota walks three straight, including a runner in, and the score is 5-4 DOdgers, and the Expos have the bases loaded for the 3rd time. But we failed again to score a run. I need timely hits. Quentin Kaussen came in in the 8th and got three quick outs. In the bottom of the 8th we threatened again with runners on 1st and 2nd and 1 out. But Ken Harvey grounds into a double play.

In the 9th, LaTroy Hawkins comes in becuase Eric Gagne was pinch hit for in the bottom of the 8th, which I though was quite foolish. Zachary Wolcott hit a single but was thrown out at 2nd for attempting an extra base. After that Corky Miller hit a double. I feel quite unlucky. But two batters later Jayson Werth hits a single to drive in a run to tie the game! Jeff DUncan made out and we go to extra innings.

Luis Toldeo retires the side in the top of the 10th, and then Jose Vidro leads off the bottom frame with a single! Rivera advances the runner to 2nd on a groundout, and then Ken Harvey is intentionally walked with one out. Zachary Wolcott has the chance to be a hero again! Jose Contreas is brought in to pitch to him.

"Conteras winds and deals... Wolcott hits a deep drive... this is gonna be over the outfielders head! Jose Vidro is waved around third. The throw is coming... its way late! Les Expos win in extra innings. Wolcott, the hero once more!"

Dodgers lead the series 2-1

Game 4: Tomo Ohka vs. Odalis Perez

Perez is one of the most dominant pitchers in the game. The Expos will need Tomo Ohka to pitch the game of his life in a pivotal game 4 at Olympic Stadium, where another sellout crowd is expected.

In the bottom of the 1st Jeff Duncan hit a solo shot, he hadnt hit a homerun in about 5 weeks. Jose Vidro then legged out a single, and then Juan Rivera hit a shot over the 99m sign in right. The Expos strike early once again, they lead 3-0.

In the 4th a throwing error by Ken Harvey allowed the leadoff hitter on, and he came around to score. Expos 3-1.

In the bottom of the 4th the Expos load the bases again this series, with nobody out. Corky Miller comes through with a clean single to score a run. Perez then gets a force out at home from a groundout, a great play, and then he strikes out Tomo Ohka and Jayson Werth. Expos 4-1 after four.

In the 5th the Dodgers get the lead baserunner on and scrap together a run.. the DOdgers are living on small ball here. Expos 4-2.

Meanwhile the Expos are living large. Jose Vidro hit a solo shot over the centerfield fence, over 400 feet! The Expos extend their lead back to three, 5-2 Expos.

In the 7th 1B Larry Barnes, who recovered from his injury just in time for tonight, hit a solo shot of his own, Expos lead is now 5-3.

Trevor Hoffman and Quentin Kaussen pitched the 8th and 9th respectively, and the Expos win Game 4, 5-3. Hoffman and Kaussen have pitched a total of 13 innings and have given up a total of zero runs!

The series is tied 2-2.

Game 5: Tony Rylance vs. Kaz Ishii

Kaz Ishii has pitched brilliantly in the playoffs, he has a 0.56 ERA this postseason. Tony Rylance won 18 games in the regular season, but has lost both playoff games. The Expos are 5-0 at home but 0-4 on the road. They'll hope for a win here as the Expos host the DOdgers in Game 5 of the NLCS.

In the top of the 1st Tony Rylance sets the tone by striking out the side!

Corky Miller is one of the few people in baseball that hit a ball over the centerfielder and can only manage a single. To his defense, Milton Bradley made 18 assists in center in the regular season, he has one of the strongest arms in baseball.

In the top of the 4th that same Milton Bradley reached 2nd on a throwing error, and Adrian Beltre singled him in, making it 1-0 Dodgers.

Kaz Ishii was dominating until Juan Rivera came through with a solo homerun in the bottom of the 4th, tying the game at 1.

In the 5th a run scored as a result of another error, and the Dodgers reclaimed the lead, 2-1.

In the bottom of the 5th the Expos had runners on 2nd and 3rd with zero out, but the bottom of the order coming up. Tony Rylance was pinch hit for by Michel Hernandez.. its a bit early for this, I guess Ill have to turn down pinch hitting even more. He strikes out, and Jayson Werth is intentionally walked to bring up Jeff Duncan with the bases loaded (yet again this series) and 2 out. The Dodgers are skeptical of his 2006 success... scouts rate his offensive ability at above average. And Jeff Duncan pops up, no runs are scored.

In the bottom of the 6th, Juan Rivera hits ANOTHER homerun off of Ishii to tie the game at 2! Rivera has been fantastic in the playoffs, his BA is now .342 in the 10 games.

After 9 full innings the game is still tied at 2, this game is going into extra innings.

In the top of the 10th Kaussen got into trouble, he had a runner on 2nd with one out, and then he intentionally walked Milton Bradley to face Adrian Beltre. Which doesnt make any sense, why would such a strong pitcher walk Bradley, and when you have a strong hitter batting after him... thats dumb. Beltre lines out to third... Wolcott is still at 3rd, I dont even bother with the defensive replacements anymore. Larson is in the minors becuase hes a liabilty pinch hitting. And Kaussen strikes out Cepicky. The threat is over, thank god.

Jhonny Peralta leads off the bottom of the 10th with a single. Does Kaussen come out in favor of a pinch hitter. If Kaussen were a good bunter, Id say no, but he 's a 19 year old reliver,so probably not, I guess you would take your chances and PH.

But Kaussen stays in the game, and grounds into a double play... I never see pitchers bunting... maybe they strike out bunting, I dont know, but i'm flustered by it. Do pitchers not bunt in real life? Kaussen stays in for another 2/3 innings, collecting 2 Ks, and then Luis Toldeo comes in to K a pinch hitter in the top of the 11th. The heart of the order is coming up for the Expos, but so is Eric Gagne.

Another night, another hero, another 3-2 game. This time, its an Expos win. In the bottom of the 11th, Vidro and Rivera strike out, but then Harvey walks. Wolcott then single to right field... Harvey, a slow runner, motors all the way around to third. Then Corky Miller hit a duck snort into shallow left, an exhausted Harvey scores, and the Expos take the series lead, 3 games to 2!

The Expos will travel back to LA to try and wrap up the series... they will need to actually win a road game in order to do it. Could it happen? Could the Expos, of all teams, with a payroll of $35.7M, with almost no fan support coming into the season, come from being a last place 69 win team to winning the pennant. Stay tuned folks.

GM24

06-29-2004, 04:04 PM

Game 6 of the NLCS: Pedro Astacio vs. Jeff Weaver

The Dodgers are feeling the heat, They got out of some tough situations to win games 1 and 2 at home. Now the Expos, with momentum on their side, go for a pennant win and a trip to the World Series, where they will face either the Rangers or the Yankees.

In the first inning Jeff Weaver intentionally walked Juan Rivera to face Ken Harvey with two outs, which turned out to be a mistake. Harvey hit a clean single to score Jayson Werth from second and the Expos get an early jump once again, 1-0.

In the 5th inning with the score still 1-0, the Expos loaded the bases with no one out and Jose Vidro, Juan Rivera and Ken Harvey coming up. Vidro hit a fly ball to left but not deep enough for Pedro Astacio to score. But Juan Rivera comes through with a 2 RBI single to make it 3-0 Expos. Ken Harvey advances both runners into scoring position on a groundout, but Wolcott grounds to 2nd to end the threat. Expos lead 3-0 after four and a half.

In the 6th inning Matt Cepicky and Jody Gerut hit consectutive doubles to score their first run. Those were the only two hits of the inning, and the Expos lead is down to 3-1.

The Expos answered right back in the top of the 7th, when Paul Shuey got into trouble, with runners on 1st and 2nd with one out. Zachary Wolcott comes through, hitting a bases clearing double. Shortly after the bases were loaded for Montreal, still one out, and pinch hitter Michel Hernandez came to the plate, with a chance to blow the game wide open. He delivers, hitting a double down the left field line! The Expos led 7-1 after that. With 2 out and the bases loaded again, Jose Vidro came up. But he strikes out, and the Dodgers finally end a disastrous inning. Will the Dodger team be able to erase a 6 run defecit? They have three innings to do so. 7-1 Expos.

Alex Leslie comes in to pitch in his first ever playoff game, and Joe Thurston greets him with a solo homerun. Welcome to the big time kid. Leslie settled down, striking out two tough batters that inning. Alex pitched the 8th also and struck out another 2 for a total of 4.After 8 the score is 7-2 in favor of the Expos.

The Dodgers had one last chance in the 9th, against Luis Toldeo. I only hope that Quentin Kaussen is on speed dial. Toldeo gets pinch hitter Wilkin Rual to groundout. 2 outs left. Joey Thurston grounds to short, 1 more out. Larry Barnes hits a sharp liner to right... Jayson Werth runs it down and makes the catch!!

The Expos win the pennant!!! The Expos are going to the World Series!! Holy Cow...

The Yankees and Rangers played Game 7 the next day. The Yankees came from behind 3-1 to force a game 7. Both teams have super powerful offenses. The Rangers won the game, 6-2. Even though the NL won the all star game the Rangers will have home field advantage, I guess becuase they won one more game than us.

The 2006 World Series, an unlikely pairing of the Rangers and the Expos, is next!

GM24

06-29-2004, 04:05 PM

EXPOS Last First AVG HR SB OBP MONsvTX AVG HR SB OBP Last First TEXAS
RF Werth Jayson 0.304 14 17 0.396 Even 0.323 12 9 0.37 Young Mike 2B
CF Duncan Jeff 0.324 13 12 0.422 Even 0.31 9 13 0.375 Santiag Ramon SS
2B Vidro Jose 0.335 30 4 0.41 > 0.324 26 15 0.401 Nix Laynce RF
LF Rivera Juan 0.278 22 3 0.335 > 0.344 28 9 0.427 Jones Jason LF
3B Wolcott Zach 0.253 12 3 0.345 < 0.324 24 6 0.396 Mench Kevin DH
1B Harvey Ken 0.304 26 2 0.379 Even 0.29 23 9 0.364 Fullmer Brad 1B
DH Hernan. Michel 0.471 1 0 0.514 > 0.269 31 6 0.342 Jarvis Bruno 3B
C Miller Corky 0.252 4 1 0.303 Even 0.268 29 0 0.312 Bard Josh C
SS Peralta Jhonny 0.218 6 8 0.3 Even 0.273 16 14 0.333 Matthew Gary CF

EXPOS Last First ERA W L SV MONvTX Last First Role ERA W L SV
SP1 Milton Eric 3.89 14 9 0 << Ramirez Horacio SP1 4.75 11 8 0
SP2 Rylance Tony 3.72 18 8 0 < Gervais Andy SP2 3.96 6 3 0
SP3 Astacio Pedro 3.88 12 8 0 Even Rodrigu Ricardo SP3 3.68 16 8 0
SP4 Ohka Tomo 4.05 11 7 0 < Valdes Ismael SP4 4.8 9 8 0

Closr Kaussn Quentn 2.41 4 1 32 << Perciva Troy Closr 6.04 7 5 21
Setup Hoffman Trevor 3.09 10 3 12 < Cordero Francis Setup 4.86 6 9 4
Short Kirn Ty 3.47 9 6 1 << Kershnr Jason Short 2.66 7 1 1
Mid Toldeo Luis 3.99 2 3 1 < Mahay Ron Mid 4.36 4 5 3
Long Leslie Alex 1.74 2 1 0 << Park Chan Ho Long 3.49 16 6 0

Offense
The Rangers offense is built strongly and impressively built. There is alot of young talent on this Rangers ballclub. The 1-5 hitters get on base often, and the middle of the order is killer. Everyone in that 3-4-5 hit better than .320. LF Jason Jones has really come out of nowhere to develop into a huge offensive threat, he had 203 hits and 58 doubles in the regular season. 22yr old Bruno Jarvis was picked in the first round of the 2005 draft, and is a vital piece of the Rangers ballclub and will be for years to come, he hit 31 homeruns. As good a lineup it is, skillwise it is similar to the Expos. Juan Rivera and Zachary Wolcott have had great postseasons, if their success is to continue, the Expos should be able to match the Rangers production.
Advantage: Even

Pitching:
The Expos have gotten great pitching out of nearly everyone, and skill wise they blow the Rangers out of the water. Horacio Ramirez has not had much success in the past three years, he isnt anywhere near ace caliber. Andy Gervais was the Rangers 1st round draft pick in 2006. He put up impressive numbers in half a season but my scouts are not impressed with his skill set. They could be wrong about him (+-7), but he is pitching above what his skill level would allow for sure. Ricardo Rodriguez has really found himself this year, he could pose a challenge. He only makes 1.5M thru 2008, hmm... As for the Rangers bullpen, It's not bad, if you're going to win in the playoffs the bullpen has to be good, but it lacks the depth of the Expos pen. Troy Percival really had a terrible year where he fell completely apart, and he hasnt faired much better in the playoffs. Cordero and Kershner are pretty good pitchers, but to Hoffman and Kern they can not compare. If the 35 year old Troy Percival can refind himself in the playoffs, then the Rangers are in good shape. If this disapointing trend continues, the Rangers are in trouble. In any case, I pick the Expos's staff over the Rangers's, any day.
Advantage: Expos

Defense
The Rangers have one of the best infield defenses I've ever seen. 2B Mike Young, SS Ramon Santiago, 3B Bruno Jarvis have range ratings of 98 or above! LF Jason Jones and RF Laynce Nix are quite rangy as well, but more prone to error. Nix made 16 errors in right, 2nd worst in the NL among rightfielders. C Josh Bard has a 98 arm and 92 fielding... wow. CF Gary Matthews is only an average defender... centerfield is their only weak position. I wouldnt be suprised to see Texas really go after one in the offseason... maybe I'll trade Jeff Duncan while he's a hot commodiy.
Advantage: Rangers

I would expect to see a much higher scoring series than we've been used to here. The Expos have won four striaght, perhaps theyll carry their momentum into this World Series. They'll need it, as they travel to Texas for the fall classic.

How the teams were formed:
TEXAS

Last First Pos Age Con Pow Speed Eye How Acquired
Young Mike 2B 28 96 76 81 75 Debut w/ Texas 2000
Santia. Ramon SS 25 81 67 80 75 Signed as FA Nov. 2005
Nix Laynce RF 24 95 87 81 74 Signed extension w/ Texas
Jones Jason LF 28 98 93 75 88 Signed extension w/ Texas
Mench Kevin LF 27 92 87 63 74 Signed extension w/ Texas
Fullmr Brad 1B 30 87 85 74 78 Signed as FA Nov. 2003?
Jarvis Bruno 3B 22 81 85 73 75 #17 pick 2005 w/ Tex
Bard Josh C 27 77 77 54 75 Signed as FA Nov. 2004
Matthe. Gary CF 30 66 74 78 74 Signed as FA Nov 2003?

Last First Pos Age End Con Velo Mov
Ramirez Horacio P 25 80 78 71 81 Signed as FA Nov 2004
Gervais Andy P 20 85 70 93 74 #12 pick 2006 w/ Tex
Rodrig. Ricardo P 26 75 78 71 87 Signed extension w/ Texas
Valdes Ismael P 31 76 88 71 82 Acquired as FA for 2003 season

Perciv. Troy P 35 >50 75 96 79 Signed as FA Nov. 2004
Cordero Franci. P 29 >50 80 87 87 Acquired in 2000
Kershn. Jason P 28 >50 79 74 94 Acquired in trade with Red Sox July 29 '06
Mahay Ron P 33 >50 75 78 87 Signed as FA Nov. 2002?
Park ChanHo P 31 76 73 80 78 Signed as FA Nov. 2001?

MONTREAL

Last First Pos Age Con Pow Speed Eye How acquired
Werth Jayson RF 25 92 80 88 80 Signed an extension w/ Mon Sep 2005
Duncan Jeff CF 26 76 73 88 77 Signed as FA Jan 2005
Vidro Jose 2B 30 95 79 63 92 Debut with Montreal 1997
Rivera Juan LF 26 95 92 70 81 Signed an extension w/ Mon Nov 2005
Wolcot. Zach 3B 24 92 87 71 93 Acquired in trade with Colorado Nov 2005
Harvey Ken 1B 27 88 82 58 75 Signed as FA Dec 2004
Hernan. Michel DH 26 85 74 70 74 Signed as FA Nov 2005
Miller Corky C 29 75 75 63 73 Acquired in trade with Cincinatti July 2006
Peralt. Jhonny SS 22 67 71 70 67 Acquired in trade with Cleveland Nov 2004

Last First Pos Age End Contr Velo Mov
Milton Eric P 29 76 93 76 81 Acquired in trade with Philidelphia Apr 2004
Rylanc. Tony P 24 88 95 77 74 #6 pick in 2005 by Expos
Astaci. Pedro P 35 78 81 77 80 Acquired in trade with New York Mets Jan 2006
Ohka Tomo P 29 80 93 73 74 Acquired in trade with Boston in 2001

Kaussn Quentn P 19 50 91 88 88 Acquired in trade with Seattle Jan 2006
Hoffman Trevor P 37 50 87 96 81 Acquired in trade with San Diego Jul 2006
Kirn Ty P 22 50 91 87 78 Acquired in trade with Detroit Jan 2005
Toldeo Luis P 27 50 87 87 74 Acquired in same trade as Kirn Jan 2005
Leslie Alex P 24 79 92 87 74 #5 pick in 2006 by Expos

Most players on the Texas roster were homegrown, and there were free agents brought in to supplement the team. The Expos mostly traded for youth and solidified their pitching through trading. Games 1 and 2 in the next post. Let's do this already!

GM24

06-30-2004, 09:30 PM

Today is Tuesday October 24, 2006. Its time for game 1 of the World Series.

Game 1: Eric Milton vs. Horacio Ramirez

The computer has Michel Hernandez batting 6th at DH and Ken Harvey batting 7th. I wouldve had it the other way around but it doesnt really matter. Both players have struggled, they each have just 2 hits in the playoffs.

In the bottom of the 1st Mike Young leads off with a solo homerun. Not a good omen for the Expos. After the first the Rangers lead 1 zip

In the top of the 3rd the Expos, you guessed it, loaded the bases and Juan Rivera came up to bat, and he walked to force in a run and tie the game. Horacio Ramirez worked his way out of it, and going into the bottom of the third the score is tied.

In that frame Ramon Santiago tripled with one out, and Laynce Nix drove him in. The Rangers scored another run in that inning, and the Rangers went up 3-1. I am dealing with a tough offense here.

The Expos have been unable to get anything going against Horacio Ramirez... the Expos have managed just 1 run on 6 hits through 7. Meanwhile the Rangers hit another homerun, this time from Gary Matthews, who is their weakest hitter of the starting 9. Might be time to starting getting the bullpen loose. Sure enough Ty Kirn came into pitch, and then Mike Young hits a homerun, his 2nd of the game. Oh vey. Rangers lead 5-1 after 7.

In the 9th, Troy Percival came in, and allowed a homerun to Corky Miller. 5-2 Expos. Later in the inning Jayson Werth hit a double, and Jeff Duncan hit a 2 run shot, and the Expos were down by just 1 run with Jose Vidro coming up! Then Francisco Cordero came in to pitch, and struck him out. The Rangers hang on to win 5-4, but boy, Troy Percival nearly blew it.

Game 2: Tony Rylance vs. Andy Gervais

Two talented rookies go head to head here in Game 2. Tony Rylance is a control artist, he only walked 43 in 218 innings, while Andy Gervais is a real power pitcher, striking out 127 in 109 innings.

Before the game, Laynce Nix broke his wrist! He will be out for the rest of the series, what a blow for the Rangers. They wil start weak hitting David Delucci in his place.

The Rangers strike early, scrapping together a run in the first inning to take a 1-0 lead.

In the 2nd, the Rangers add two more with a bases loaded single by SS Ramon Santiago. Rangers lead 3-0 early.

THe Expos finally get on the board in the 4th, when Juan Rivera hits a solo shot over the 332 feet sign in left. That's Rivera's 6th homerun of the playoffs. Hernandez, Harvey, and Miller hit consectutive 2 out singles to drive in another run. 3-2 Rangers. In the bottom half of the inning Ramon Santiago comes through again with an RBI single, and the Expos manager decided he saw enough. Jimmy Gobble then came in and got Mike Young, who moved down to the three hole due to Nix's injury. 4-2 Rangers after four.

To lead off the bottom of the 5th Jason Jones hit a solo homerun to center. Ho hum. Meanwhile Gervias has struck out a rediculous amount of people... lets hope to keep this game close so that Percival comes in to blow it.

With the score at 6-3 at the top of the ninth Troy Percival did indeed come in for the Rangers... how would he fair? He faired well, allowing no hits in the inning, the Rangers take a 2-0 lead, this is a good team, the Expos are in trouble.

GM24

06-30-2004, 10:12 PM

Game 3: Pedro Astacio vs. Ricardo Rodriguez

Pedro Astacio won a ring last year with the Mets, he has pitched very well in the playoffs the past two seasons. He will pair off against Ricardo Rodriguez, the best SP out of the Rangers playoff rotation who has also equally successful in October. The Expos go back home where they havent lost a playoff game. Lets take it one game at a time here, and see if we can pull out a victory tonight.

Jayson Werth led off the bottom of the first with a triple, and Jose Vidro drove him in with a one out single.

Jason Jones hit his 2nd solo homerun in as many games. Two batters later Bruno Jarvis hit a solo bomb. Rangers lead 2-1.

In the top of the 5th Jhonny Peralta singled home Corky Miller to tie the game at 2. Then Pedro Astacio grounded into a double play, the third by the Expos this game! **** this defense.

To begin the 7th Bruno Jarvis hits his 2nd homerun of the game to make it 3-2 Rangers. I hate the Rangers.

Bottom of the 8th, 2 out, bases loaded, Juan Rivera up to bat. Rivera... pops up.

The Rangers went down 1-2-3 in the top of the 9th. Troy Percival comes into to close the game, and gets the Expos down in order. The Rangers take a commanding 3-0 lead.

Game 4: Tomo Ohka vs. Ismael Valdes
The Expos face the brink of elimination in game 4. Tomo Ohka will take the mound over Eric Milton, I figure if I have four games to win I'll need Milton to be rested. Being down 3-0, it would take nothing short of a miracle for les Expos to win les Series. On an encouraging note, the games we have lost have been close. And who expected the Expos to win the league championship on a 35.8M payroll, beating the mighty Dodgers 4 games to 2. The Expos front office would love to see a win here so there would be another game in Montreal.

In the bottom half of the first the Expos left the bases loaded, naturally. In the top of the second the Rangers had runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 out. We intentionally walked Gary Matthews, the 8th place hitter, to make Valdes the pitcher. Should be an easy out, except he doubles and drives in two runs. Ugh. Rangers 2-0

In the 5th the Expos have the bases loaded again with one out and Jose Vidro up to bat. Vidro... lined out to right. Rivera... lined to center. Double ugh. Rangers still up 2-0 after 5.

In the 9th, Quentin Kaussen gave up 4 runs on 3 hits and 3 walks... I hope this doesnt hamper the 19 year old emotionally. The Rangers took a 6-0 lead... it was over. The Rangers, a team I thought didnt have the pitching to succeed in the playoffs humbled the Expos in 4.

Playoff Record: 9-9
Regular Season Record: 100-62
Overall Record: 109-69

-End of 2006-

GM24

07-01-2004, 04:23 PM

October 29th 2006

IF Jamey Carroll released

Carroll, 32, was a nice utility player, but he was asking for $840K for four years. Carroll's skills are mostly 75s. In 561 career at bats dating back to 2002 he has hit .273 with 36 doubles and 3 homeruns. If Carroll is available for 500K for 2 years, I'll sign him.

C Tim Laker resigned to a one year $620K deal

Laker, 36, made some nice contributions, and he will backup Corky Miller, for a bit. The plan is for C Corky Miller to become C Victor Martinez's backup after his rehab. I dont have a timetable for Martinez, I'd just like for him to stay in AAA as long as possible before I need him next season. Laker's skills have really diminished.. he makes poor contact with the ball, although he managed a respectable .243 average last season is 136 at bats. He still has average power and and average arm. This should be Laker's sixteenth and final season as a journeyman catcher. It will be nice to see him end his career in the same place he started.

RP Trevor Hoffman's demands not met

They were pretty redicoulous for a 37 going on 38 year old setup man on a small market team. $5.4M a year for 3 years. Hoffman will be pretty difficult to replace. He was golden in the off-season, a fantastic power pitcher who gets good control and movement on his pitches, and experience to boot. I would be willing to pay Hoffman $3.3M a year for 2 years, 300K below what he made last season, but I probably wont get that oppurtunity.

Expos did not renew RP Chad Gaudin's contract

SP Chad Gaudin, who is only 23, finished the year with a 5.26 ERA but pitched well for most of the season, save for one or two nightmare apperances toward the end of the year. His ERA jumped from the upper 3s to the lower 5s. Gaudin was pretty useful, he is above average skill wise. But he doesnt have the endurance (58) to give you more than 5 innings. He was seeking in the 2M range... he'll seek that elsewhere.

With that, I only have 12 pitchers on my team. Time to update to V7.06, and continue to the offseason.

2006 Addendum

NATIONAL LEAGUE (2006)

EAST W L PCT GB AVG HR SB ERA
Montreal 100 62 .617 -- .281 137 60 4.03
New York 93 69 .574 7.0 .266 229 78 4.05
Atlanta 85 77 .525 15.0 .274 223 85 4.55
Florida 74 88 .457 26.0 .248 136 103 4.04
Philadelphia 54 108 .333 46.0 .253 164 85 5.58

DIVISION PLAYOFFS
Rangers defeat Orioles, 3-1
Yankees defeat White Sox, 3-2
Dodgers defeat Mets, 3-2
Expos defeat Cubs, 3-2

LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Rangers defeat Yankees, 4-3
Expos defeat Dodgers, 4-2

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Rangers defeat Expos, 4-0

My teams fan loyalty went up from a D to a.... C+! Woo hoo!

Two teams who had not seen the playoffs in years faced off in the World Series. The Rangers snuck by the Yankees and swept me to claim what I beleive to be their first World Championship in franchise history. In the off season they lost 2B Mike Young but look to add Tony Armas Jr., who played well in Colorado after his injury healed, and also 3B Adrian Beltre, a key part of the Dodgers. That is unfourtunate for the young Texas 3B Bruno Jarvis, who showed impressive power in the playoffs. Their money is better spent on retaining Mike Young.

The Mets and Braves look like theyll keep their team mostly intact, while the Marlins and Phillies (who finally got out of debt), have alot of work to do. I'll take a more in depth look of the divison on Opening Day 2007.

NATIONAL LEAGUE (2006)

Cy Young Jae Weong Seo (NYM) 20-4 2.86 ERA
Player of the Year: Manny Ramirez (CHC) .336 46HR
Rookie Of The Year: Jayson Werth (MON) .304 138Runs

Gold Glove (P): Tony Rylance (MON) 18 wins, 0 errors
Gold Glove (C): Dave Ross (LAD)
Gold Glove (1B): Larry Barnes (LAD)
Gold Glove (2B): Luis Castillo (FLA)
Gold Glove (3B): Adrian Beltre (LAD)
Gold Glove (SS): Juan Uribe (LAD)
Gold Glove (LF): Carl Crawford (COL)
Gold Glove (CF): Johnny Damon (SFG)
Gold Glove (RF): Jose Cruz Jr. (SFG)

You already know about many of these players if you have been following my dynasty. Jae Weong Seo has improved by leaps and bounds the past three years and was remarkable in 2006. MVP Manny Ramirez was only 2-18 against the Expos in the 1st round, thankfully. RF Jayson Werth wins the ROY, and SP Tony Rylance, another ROY candidate won the GG much to my suprise. SFG CF Johnny Damon practically plays left and center field; Giants LF Tony Torcato can hardly catch the ball. The Dodgers had 4 gold glovers in the infield, and so did the Rangers which would explain the amount of double plays I grounded into.

There were three players elected into the hall this year. Rafael Palmeiro got 81% of the vote and will be offically inducted in 2013. In his 21 year career he collected 2880 hits and 551 homeruns. Roger Clemens was a unanimous decison to enter the hall, a very rare occurance. Clemens won 346 games and collect 4651Ks in a storied career.

Kevin Brown retired unexpectedly at the age of 41, after putting up good numbers with the Blue Jays in 2006. Brown finished his career at 228-159 with a 3.30 ERA. He will be inducted in the same class as Palmiero.

Looking at the finances, it looks like the Marlins arent going to be active in the free agent market. The Braves lost money but have enough in their coffers to make a run for somebody. And so do the Mets with $43M. And so do I... but I'm the Expos. SO I probably wont unless I get a real deal.
...
Let's take a look at the marquee free agents that are out there.
3B Adrian Beltre seeking $15.5M per for 7 years (Texas is close)

SS Jack Wilson seeking $15.0M per for 7 years (Pirates plan to resign)

Wilson didnt have a good offensive season last year, hitting .257, but he has hit .290+ the two seasons before that. Wilson is an excellent defensive SS, but 15 million a year is absurd.

RF Austin Kearns seeking $15.8M per for 6 years (Orioles are close)

Kearns is worth the money. Early in the year he was hitting up in the 370s and really carried the Reds. But he got injured late, and had a sub par September, finishing at .340 with 31 homeruns. He is only 25, and he has good arm and range... altho he makes alot of errors... he's a Vladimir Guerrero that doesnt steal as much. Kearns is an injury concern, he played in 132 games last year and just 97 the season before, but he appears to be in good health.

2B Mike Young seeking $14.6M per for 7 years (White Sox are close)

Looks like the Rangers wont be getting the uber-talented Mike Young back, although they have a fantastic defensive replacement in 2B Bradon Phillips (100 Range). Young has a World Championship under his belt, now he'll get the green with the White Sox.

Mark Prior seeking $9.8M per for 5 years (Giants are close)

That's a good price for Prior. The 25 year old was 15-10 with a 3.61 ERA with the Cubs. He also struck out 227 in 204 innings. He is also in good health and is a great hitting pitcher. Good hitters can sometimes get good wood on the ball against him, but he has superb control and power. With a good defense behind him, hes a Cy Young candidate every year. Hmm... Prior, Milton, Rylance, Leslie... oh man. I might sign this guy. I know that if the Mets or Braves were close I would definetly sign this guy. If there was a salary floor of $40M, I would sign this guy. He's 25, healthy, and has a 3.18 career ERA. People will come to see this guy pitch. He'sa big name player. I've been looking for a power pitcher as well. Theres no other pitcher like him. Well there is one..

Pedro Martinez seeking $9.1M per for 4 years (Rockies are close)

Martinez, 34, is one of the most dominant pitchers in the history of the game, but hasn't had overwhelming success the past three years. Still he had a better year than Prior, going 14-8 with a 3.36 ERA. His ratings are almost identical to Prior, he is just a slight bit lower, but hes the same type of pitcher. He has suffered minor injuries two of those past three years, and actually pitched less than 6 innings a start in 2006. However I pitch my starters longer than the average team, I had 24 complete games, by far 1st in the league. Besdies he is healthy, 81 health. Myscouts have this to say about Martinez: "He's the kind of pitcher you want a young rotation to learn from." Tony Rylance and Alex Leslie are both 25 and important parts of my future. Pedro established himself in Montreal as an elite pitcher, this would be a great homecoming and would really symbolize the turning around of this franchise... This is a difficult decison for the Expos.

Money isnt an issue between the two; its either $9.5/7yr for Prior or $9.1/4yr for Pedro. Prior is the younger more healthy pitcher who could go a bit longer in a gaem than Pedro. Plus if things dont work out with him, he still would have value, unlike Pedro, who would be 35 before I could trade him. But Pedro is the proven winner, he has over 200 of them. Hes already a future HOF, with Prior its still unclear, though he is good. I also want to resign either Rylance or Leslie down the road. But if my young pitchers could really learn from Martinez... its a delightful dillema. Which one would you sign?

GM24

07-02-2004, 01:50 AM

November 10th 2006

Signed Mark Prior to a 7 year deal worth $9,500,000 per year (7yr/67.5M total)

In probably the biggest free agent signing in Expos history, the Expos ink SP Mark Prior, one of the best in the game, to a 7 year deal worth just under 10 million a year. Prior, 25, pitched brillantly in his one playoff start against the team that signed him, earning the win. Prior was 15 and 10 with a 3.61 ERA last season, which is an off year for him. At 25 he is a Cy Young contender every year.

NOVEMBER 10, 2006
Devil Rays receive Jeff Duncan (CF) and Jimmy Gobble (SP)
Expos receive Endy Chavez (CF)

The Devil Rays clear a little cap room and get good players in return, although both Gobble and Duncan have expiring contracts. Endy Chavez is a fine offensive player and a freak athlete.

Jeff Duncan, 27, had a breakthrough year in 2006, he hit .324 with 13 homeruns, a marked improvement in his 2005 numbers. He is a speedster... although he only stole 12 bases last year he could steal many more. He can run down quite a few balls in center and is an excellent fielder, altho he did make 5 errors. He doesnt have an arm out there either and is run on often. Duncan makes the league minimum (what a steal he turned out to be) but his contract expires next season. He will bat leadoff in Tampa.

SP Jimmy Gobble, 24, was signed in the 2004 off season to just bridge the gap until Tony Rylance, but if he pitched well he could be moved up. Well the young pitcher played very well in 2005, (3.48 ERA in 23 starts) and when Tony Armas Jr. was injured and subsequently dealt there was room for both him and Rylance in the rotation. Gobble won 15 games last season with the Expos... he has above average skills and will be the #4 starter on the D Rays. He makes 1.25 mil and his contract is up after the 2007 season.

CF Endy Chavez, 28, has blossomed into the player that the Expos never enivsoned him being when he was traded for Eric Milton 2 1/2 years ago. He has started the last two seasons wth Tampa, averaging .295 with 35 doubles, 10 homeruns and 18 SB, but my scouts marvel at his physical ability. He has the talent to hit .310 and is a phenomenally gifted centerfielder, making 22 assists in center (!!) with just 2 errors. Chavez makes 3 million a year through 2008, he will start and bat 2nd with the Expos.

That'll do it for this week... as kind of a self imposed rule I only make 2 moves a week. Although the Mark Prior deal is like 3 moves all by itself. More off season transactions coming soon.

GM24

07-03-2004, 12:54 PM

November 17th 2006
Signed RP Chris Spurling to a 3 year deal worth 1M per

Spurling, 28, is a fine additon to bolster the Expos bullpen. Spurling is quite skilled, he has a tough curveball that he can throw for strikes. Hitters are often swinging on top of his breaking pitches. Chris spent the whole year in AAA last season, posting a 4.01 ERA and an allowed OBA of just .308. He will probably pitch in short relief for the Expos.

Pedro Martinez signed with the Rockies... good luck with allll that.

That will be all the moves I'll make until the draft. I still have other needs to fill... I need a starter who can be ready in a year, a shortstop who's ready in a year, and people to fill out my bench. Draft is coming up next.

GM24

07-03-2004, 05:32 PM

Round 1, Pick 27: Expos select 3B Mark Drake (69/79)

I love the Drake. The Drake is good. Mark Drake, 23, is a third baseman who has average overall talent now and a chance to become a good player. He should develop good hitting skills, he hit .277 in AA with 22 two baggers in 271 ABs. However he is only an average fielder. In time, he could start someday on a weaker team.

Round 2, Pick 57: Expos select RF Jose Cepeda (56/77)

Jose Cepeda is a long way away but has all the tools to become an exceptional hitter. He has a very good eye, he walked more times than he struck out in AA. He also has above average speed, stealing 11 bases in 66 games. Jose is a below average fielder right now, and he runs poor routes in right field, but he isnt terrible and can improve this. Cepeda, 23, could play a key role in someones future down the line

Round 3, Pick 87: Expos select RP Perry Kunz (60/70)

Kunz, 25, doesnt have a good major league curveball yet but despite his low rating he is on the fringe of the majors. He compares favorably to Chris Spurling and has a chance to develop even better skills than him.

Round 4, Pick 117: Expos select 1B Galeno Indelicato (59/78)
Galeno has the chance to develop into an everyday 1B. He hit .276 with 22 doubles, similar to what the Drake did in AA. Indelicato, 19, would be an unlikely sucessor for the Expos at 1B, but could develop inot something special.

Round 5, Pick 147: Expos select RF Bill Day (52/72)

Day, 21, is so far away from being a major league caliber player that its impossible to tell what he will become, though I'm not terribly optimistic. He's an average fielder with a little bit of pop but can not hit, he strikes out a ton and hit uinder .200 in AA.

I released my 6th round pick, a reliever who threw too many 56 foot curveballs in AA.

That's it for the draft. I need to make a few moves yet.. I dont really know who I could trade though.

GM24

07-04-2004, 03:09 AM

Last post I commented that I didnt have anyone to trade, but when there is a will there is a way. I made two trades, but now I only have 11 pitchers on my roster. Which is a problem. :rolleyes:

JANUARY 24, 2007
Tigers receive Antonio Perez (SS), Perry Kunz (RP) and Zachary Canapary (LF)
Expos receive Jaime Hinsdale (SS)

Jaime Hinsdale was the best available young SS who should be starting material in a year, and I didnt really have to give up much to get him.

SS Antonio Perez was signed as a free agent a year ago to a 3 year deal worth 1.41M all told. Not much was expected of Perez but he hit .303 in AAA and was called up midway through the season to hit .284 in a pinch hitting role. Perez, 26, can play all infield positons but hurts his team by making poor decisions on the field. Perez will start and bat 9th to round out a strong offense that includes former Braves LF Chipper Jones (.303 30HR) and C Javy Lopez (.284 30HR)

RP Perry Kunz was drafted in the 3rd round in last week's ammy draft. I am confident that Perry will develop into a major leaguer and find a place in Detroit's bullpen.

LF Zachary Canapary was drafted in the 6th round of the 2006 Minor League Draft by the Expos. He has one of the best names I have ever seen. Given the outside chance that he can hit the breaking pitch, he could be a name player.

In the deal I get SS Jaime Hinsdale, who isnt the next superstar but will have a long career as a starter in this league. Hinsdale, 24, is a talented hitter and wont hurt a team with his bat. His real strength is in the field, he will take alot of hits away and has a good arm. A smart overall player who still has some room to improve, Hinsdale should be an important part of the Expos future.

JANUARY 24, 2007
Mets receive Ken Harvey (1B), Tomokazu Ohka (SP) and Felix Sanchez (RP)
Expos receive Jason Phillips (1B)

I'm sure you all remember Jason Phillips, who won the batting title in 2005 but lost his job to Mark Teixiera, a hot free agent at the time. Well Phillips spent 2006 on the bench and was given a reasonable long term deal. Let's go over who was given up.

1B Ken Harvey, 28, had a career year, performing over what his ability level might ordinarily allow by hitting .304 with 42 doubles and 26 bombs last season. He is a good offensive player nonetheless. Harvey is not slick defensively, commiting 10 errors, but he reads the ball well off the bat and that allows him to make a few extra plays. Harvey will probably battle for playing time in New York. He earns 1.7M/yr through 2009.

SP Tomo Ohka ended his 5 1/2 year relationship with the Expos, the 8 year veteran joins his 3rd team after winning 40 games in an Expo uniform, including 1 playoff game. Ohka has superior control of his pitches; he can be particularly effective when working with a large strike zone. Ohka, 30, has had some minor health issues, but nothing arm related... he hasnt started 30 games in a season since 2003. He should be effective in Shea Stadium, a pitchers park. He will be the #4 starter on the Mets. He makes 2.1M and his contract expires at the end of the season.

RP Felix Sanchez, 24, is a young pitcher with some upside. He has average skills now but should develop into a useful pitcher. If the Mets are patient they could be rewarded. Sanchez makes 340K in this final year of his contract.

1B Jason Phillips, 29, was a pinch hitter for most of last season, and only managed .268 in 149ABs. But in 2005 Phillips had 215 hits and won the batting crown. He is a very similar hitter to Jose Vidro. He could be that good for the Expos. While he isnt an improvement defensively, Phillips could be the big bat that the Expos have been looking for, he could be the RBI machine that the Expos needed. Phillips is well paid however, he will earn $5,400,000 a year for 7 years, until he hits 36 years old. I doubt he'll be in an Expo uniform that long.

Some FA singings were made to fill out the roster.

January 31st 2007
Signed RP Matt Roney to a 2 year deal worth $350K per

When Roney has his sinker working he is as unhittable as anyone else in the league. When he falls behind though, major league hitters will feast on his 86 mph fastball. The former Tiger tore up the minor leagues, and looks to be a nice complimentary player. The 26 year old can give you 3-4 reliable innings in long relief. That will be his role as an Expo.

Signed OF Bruce Tuyet to a 1 year 360K deal

Tuyet, 28, was a good player in the independent leagues. In the major leagues, hes not so good. He's lead footed and wont run down a lot of balls in the outfield. At least he wont embarrass himself at the plate, he may even hit a homerun or two. Tuyet will be a 5th OF.

Feburary 7th 2007
Signed RP Chris Mears to a 1 year 310K deal

Mears is an average pitcher with above average stuff. Chris is a talented pitcher who deserves a role on almost any team. The 28 year old rookie was not retained by the Tigers, and like Roney he can give you 3-4 innings of long relief. Him and this guy equal one starter. He will pitch in AAA but will be needed in an emergency. This gives me 13 pitchers on the roster.

My team looks pretty set for now... my only complaint is that I dont have a good replacement for Hoffman, who was a key to the teams success. Perhaps a mid season move could bring in a veteran RP. We will see.

GM24

07-05-2004, 06:25 PM

February 14th 2007
Signed FA RP Roy Cocoran to a 1 year deal worth 300K

RP Cocoran, 25, is a talented young rookie reliever who may well get some playing time with the Expos. Cocoran has a major league curveball and has above average command of the strike zone. He has some upside, he could develop into a good major league RP. Cocoran has a 1.21 career ERA in 22 IP. This is his second stint with the team, He was an Expo until 2005 when he was traded with C Einar Diaz for RF Jayson Werth.

March 1st 2007
Signed LF Luke Allen to a 2 year deal worth $1M (500K per year)

Luke Allen is a nice backup OF. He started for the Rockies last year, hitting .276 with 17 HR and 10 SB in 132 games. SKillwise however, Allen is an average hitter who is a below average fielder. He does however have good speed (86). He is the only player on the Expos bench that is fast, he will be used a good deal as a pinch runner.

At the moment I only have one backup IF (Brandon Larson), but I will suffice. If worse comes to worse IF Rico Alvarez, my 5th round pick from last year, can come in to play some positons. Alvarez has made great progress since being drafted, he will be a good utility IF in time.

It's opening day (April 6th) now, and it looks like C Victor Martinez will be ready in time for the season... he came back April 2nd, and has gone 2-4 in AAA. I dont want to rush Martinez back to the bigs, but I'd like him back April 16th, for when I face the Cubs at home. Martinez still has an upside of 12... keeping him in the Minors would do him some good so that he can recoup some of his skills, but I dont know how much good 2 weeks would do. I'm hoping it has some effect.

Anyway, this has the makings of being a great team, I'm excited about, next post will be opening day rosters and an in depth look at my team and the divison.

GM24

07-06-2004, 03:37 PM

Last First Team Pos Age Salary Con Powl Spd Eye Arm Rng Fld Hlth
Martin. Victor MON C 27 3100000 88 73 61 81 85 75 92 C+
Miller Corky MON C 30 520000 70 75 63 73 93 80 97 C+
Philli. Jason MON 1B 29 5400000 93 80 54 85 75 78 66 C+
Caland. Toby MON 1B 26 300000 75 70 65 75 70 73 71 A-
Vidro Jose MON 2B 31 4900000 95 78 63 92 82 87 76 A
Peralta Jhonny MON SS 23 420000 67 71 70 67 85 95 76 B-
Wolcott Zachary MON 3B 25 300000 92 87 67 93 75 75 70 A
Larson Brandon MON IF 29 300000 67 75 67 75 88 81 68 C+
Rivera Juan MON LF 27 2800000 93 92 70 81 93 93 64 C+
Chavez Endy MON CF 28 3000000 91 70 88 76 99 93 78 B-
Werth Jayson MON RF 26 3500000 92 80 88 80 92 87 81 C+
Yamamo. Hiroshi MON OF 25 300000 81 73 64 75 77 71 71 B
Allen Luke MON LF/RF 27 500000 76 75 82 78 65 71 75 C+
Tuyet Bruce MON OF 28 360000 61 70 58 66 75 60 64 B+

Last First Team Pos Age Salary End Con Velo Mov Arm Rng Field Hlth
Prior Mark MON SP1 25 9500000 80 92 94 78 64 65 61 A-
Milton Eric MON SP2 30 1450000 76 93 76 81 64 63 60 A-
Rylanc. Tony MON SP3 25 300000 88 95 77 75 75 78 77 B+
Leslie Alex MON SP4 25 300000 78 92 82 75 73 70 70 A-
Astaci. Pedro MON SP5 36 2000000 78 81 77 80 71 73 66 B

Kaussn Quentn MON Clo 20 300000 >50 92 88 87 61 54 75 C+
Kirn Ty MON Set 23 300000 >50 91 87 78 60 61 60 C+
Spurli. Chris MON Sho 28 1000000 >50 82 71 88 65 55 75 C+
Toldeo Luis MON Mid 28 300000 >50 87 82 75 63 58 64 C+
Roney Matt MON Long 26 350000 >50 75 67 91 63 60 60 B-
Howard Ben MON Alt 27 980000 75 75 75 87 63 60 75 C+

It appears that Victor Martinez's knees shouldnt have a major effect on his performance. He has lost a bit of mobility that he wont ever be able to get back, but he has enough upside that he can regain his skills and then some... 7 of the 8 Expos starters have a contact rating of 88 or higher. Only 2 Expos have a speed of 88... they are both in the starting lineup, hitting 1 and 2 in the order.

As far as pitching goes, 6 of 11 pitchers on the 25 man roster have a control of 90 or better. I have a lot of nibblers on this staff.

Last First Team G AVG 2B HR BB K SB CS SLG OBP
Werth Jayson RF 154 0.304 43 14 91 129 17 4 0.46 0.396
Chavez Endy CF 146 0.291 42 9 43 84 20 12 0.439 0.334
Vidro Jose 2B 158 0.335 44 30 78 82 4 1 0.55 0.41
Rivera Juan LF 144 0.278 53 22 52 94 3 4 0.488 0.335
Wolcott Zachary 3B 157 0.253 44 12 89 115 3 0 0.39 0.345
Philli. Jason 1B 140 0.268 9 4 19 25 1 0 0.423 0.355
Martin. Victor C 68 0.314 13 2 36 40 2 1 0.396 0.392
Peralta Jhonny SS 123 0.218 12 6 53 105 8 3 0.302 0.3

Yamamo. Hiroshi OF 44 0.276 10 1 15 17 3 3 0.356 0.339
Allen Luke LF/RF 132 0.276 24 17 62 73 10 4 0.489 0.365
Miller Corky C 70 0.252 11 4 14 57 1 0 0.361 0.303
Calande Toby 1B 3 0.375 1 0 2 1 0 0 0.5 0.5
Larson Brandn IF 78 0.266 1 2 11 18 0 0 0.38 0.356
Tuyet Bruce OF

Batting:
Endy Chavez, great a player as he is, wont be able to put up the numbers that Jeff Duncan put up in '06... Duncan himself couldnt have. He hits for average and is a perennial gold glover, but he doesnt get on base. He's had an OBP of .335 in 2 seasons with the D-Rays. Given this, I think that I may move Chavez up to the leadoff spot and Jayson Werth down to #2. If Juan Rivera, Zach Wolcott, and Jason Phillips can play up to their skill level... you're going to have very dangerous 2-7 hitters. Jhonny Peralta is a career .236 hitter, and he strikes out a good deal. He can draw a walk at least... Nonetheless, this is a good lineup for an NL team... if Juan Rivera and Zach Wolcott have good years its a great one.

Mogul Batting Rating: 88 (1st in NL)
Mogul Lineup Rating: 99 (1st in NL)

Defense:
1B Phillips isn't a terrible fielder, in his career he has never made more than 10 errors. Zachary Wolcott had difficulty adjusting to 3rd in the earlygoing but finished the year fielding at a .949 clip. Juan Rivera makes a ton of plays, although some of those made Expos fans cringe... he too had a .949 clip. But other than that this is a very good defense. The arm ratings of the outfielders on this team are 92 or higher and the average range of these guys is a 91. SS Peralta and 2B Vidro take away a good deal of hits up the middle... and they both have good arms. Corky Miller is an outstanding defensive catcher, and Victor Martinez has lost a bit of strength from his injury but is still a very good fielder. Overall, this is a strong defensive core... we've come a long way here.

Mogul Defense Rating: 98 (T1st in NL)

Rotation:
This is a fantastic rotation. Prior, Milton, Rylance, Leslie, Astacio. All very capable pitchers. Mark Prior could win 20 games... I think that with him on the mound the Expos have a true ace... the kind of way that when hes out there you have a good shot of winning the game. Eric Milton is like 1A on this team... he is a very good pitcher, he has outstanding command of the stirke zone and freezes hitters with a curveball that comes around and nails the outside corner. Milton is entering his tenth season in the majors and has really established himself. The two young guns, Tony Rylance and Alex Leslie, are very good #3 and 4 starters. Both pitchers are young and still developing that brekaing pitch. They might of been rushed but they are too good to be in the minors. Pedro Astacio will round out the rotation... even though he's 36 there is no reason he can pitch like he has the past two years.

Mogul Rotation Rating: 84 (T1st)

Bullpen:
Kaussen-Kirn is a great one two punch. The 20 year old Kaussen saved 32 games last season... his last apperance was Game 4 of the World Series when he couldnt get any one out... but he has had a good spring and has that experience under his belt. Kirn, 23, is one of the better setup men around... he struck out 80 and walked 30 in 80 innings last year. After Kaussen and Kirn... there isnt too much going for this pen. Chris Spurling is going to be a nice short man... the ball is so hard to pick up on his... he's a submariner, and he can throw strikes, he's done well in AAA, but he'll need alot of defensive help as he doesnt strike out alot of people. Luis Toledo has the potential to be a very good releiver, but hes good now and will be a nice middle releiver. Matt Roney is a new acquisiton, he can give you three-four innings of good long relief, he is tough to hit at times but can be inconsistent. Ben Howard had a pretty decent year in 2005 when he started 22 games for the Expos, and he got a 3 year 3M contract. He had a poor 2006, but he has the skills to pitch decently again... he could start on a weaker team. I am a little weary of this bullpen... but if need be I will make the move for another arm I'll do it.

Mogul Bullpen Rating: 59 (T5th in NL)

I have a good, balanced team here. Even though the Mets overall rating is ten points lower than mine that Mets team is going to give us a fight. That team is very good... they return a good lineup that features AS caliber players Nomar Garciaparra, 3B Hank Blalock, and 1B Mark Teixiera. Jae Wyong Seo won the Cy Young Award last year and is a dominant ace on that team... Braden Looper, who was having a great year before getting injured last year, will return in early June as the Mets closer. And Tomo Ohka is a good player who is their new #4 starter. It shoudl be a very fine season... opening day coming up next post.

Mogul Overall Rating: 86 (1st in NL)

GM24

07-07-2004, 12:16 PM

...at last

It'll be Expos vs. Phillies, Mark Prior squaring off against Randy Wolf, who was 8-15 with a 4.48 last season. The Phillies, finally out of debt, made some interesting moves in the off season. They snagged a pretty good #3 starter in Shawn Chacon, and for their #4 starter they got a guy who was 14-3 with the Mets... but has just average ratings... pay those scouts better. They also signed Trevor Hoffman. They also bolstered their offense with alot of middling players. Sean Casey who hit .333 with 21HR, is one of those additons. He bats in front of star Bobby Abreu, so he'll get alot of pitches to hit. Even with an improved squad, the Phillies are the worst team in the divison. But they should manage 70 wins.

So how did Mark Prior do in his first game? Well he pitched a complete game shutout. A ten hit shoutout, but a shut out mind you. 134 pitches. A bit excessive. Ill be turning that high pitch count down a bit.

We won 3-0... Jason Phillips hit a solo homerun in his first at bat with the Expos. I bet hes glad he wont be sitting on the end of the bench with the Mets. Now poor Ken Harvey will...

We ended up taking the series, 2 games to 1, that last game though was 16-13 Phillies! Everyone got scored off of, except for Ben Howard, who struck out 5 in 2.2IP. Why only 2.2IP? Good question. Raising high pitch count a bit... The strange thing about that game, despite 29 runs being scored only 1 homerun was hit.

GM24

07-08-2004, 12:57 AM

After that forgettable 16-13 loss versus the Phillies, the Expos won five of their next six games, and are now 7-2 overall. Then the Cubs came into town, just in time for C Victor Martinez to make his season debut. This will be Martinez's first game since suffering what was thought to be career threatening damage to his knee. He was 9-23 in AAA, and he looks good to go. He will bat 7th behind Jayson Phillips and solididy this lineup.

Martinez made a throwing error in the 1st to allow a run to score... one of two in the inning that allowed 3 runs to score. But with the help of his 2 run homerun and a game tying single, the Expos rallied back from a 5 run defecit to pull out a victory, 9-8. Of course I cant expect to win most games where I give up 3 homeruns to J.D. Drew. But a win is a win. And its only April

The very next game is Mark Prior, who was wooed from the Cubs in the offseason, pitches against his former team. It was Kerry Wood vs. Mark Prior! What a matchup...

Expos won that game, 5-3, but it concerns me that Prior was taken out after just 80 pitches. He gave up 3 runs but on only 4 hits and a walk in 5 innings... wasnt getting pounded. I need a guy like Prior out there on the mound. But he was alright... sliders will be adjusted again.

April Record: 16-7, 2.5 GA
Average: .292, 2nd in NL
ERA: 4.03, 8th in NL

LF Rivera, 2B Vidro, and 1B Phillips is a 3-4-5 to be reckoned with. Rivera and Phillips are hit better than .380 in April, and Vidro had 9 homeruns, tied for 2nd in the NL. At this pace he would hit 50 bombs. 3B Zach Wolcott had a .205 April... I'm moving him down to 7th, maybe he'll perform better without the pressure.

Expos 1st round pick IF Mark Drake is playing very well, hitting .306 in AAA. I switched him to SS so that he could play all IF positions. If he can improve his fielding he'll be a great commodity as a super sub...

Pitching has been kinda up and down. We've won alot of close games, and some games have gotten out of hand. But its been good for the most part. SP Alex Leslie... my God... he's 4-0 with a 2.87 ERA. No starting pitchers have lost a game in fact, not even Pedro Astacio, who hasnt come close to being his dominant self. This is a good sign, it means that we have had a chance in every game; that we havent been out of one early. Closer Quentin Kaussen hasnt allowed a run since April 3rd, and has 9 saves to lead the league. It just tells you how valuable Quentin is to this ballclub... fourtunately I dont have to worry about resigning him until 2010. Kirn has a 6.23 ERA, but a WHIP of about 1.1, so thats a bit of an anomaly... hsi numbers will be there. Luis Toledo has a 1.0 ERA in 9IP.. he is a nice pitcher. The rest of the bullpen I worry about although they havent pitched terribly.

This team can be either be a good team or a dominant one. If we continue to win close games and keep the pitching staff healthy, this Expos team should be able to improve upon its 100 wins of 2006.

GM24

07-09-2004, 12:21 AM

May 2, 2007
1B Jason Phillips out 14 days with finger stress fracture

C/1B Michel Hernandez will fill in and bat 7th.

May 5, 2007
SS Jhonny Peralta out 20 days with... finger stress fracture

As a result, recently acquired SS Jaime Hinsdale will make his major league debut as a result. The 24 year old was acquired from the Tigers last January. He has made great progress in AAA, hitting .321, and is probably better than Peralta anyway. He could win the starting job outright if he plays well.

May 15, 2007
CF Endy Chavez out for 14 days with.. (drumroll) foot stress fracture.

That leaves 3 starters out... OF Hiroshi Yamamoto will fill in I imagine. Jason Phillips is coming back tommorow at least. Quentin Kaussen finally gave up a run, 3 actually, today as well, snapping a 6 week long scoreless streak, he has 15 saves, far and ahead 1st in the majors.

May 20th 2007
Lost a real heartbreaker today hosting the Cardinals. Runners on 1st and 2nd, 2 out, Milton pitching in the 9th, a four hit shutout, and it looks like he'll get a 2-0 win. Tom Prince, a career .211 hitter, is up. Prince nearly misses the pitch and hits the ball maybe 15 feet... C Martinez makes an awkward play on the ball and his throw sends 1B Phillips off the bag. So, there are still 2 out, the bases are loaded with PH Rondell White coming up. Quentin Kaussen is warming up in the pen, but he isnt brought in. Instead Milton faces Rondell White, who hit .305 last year in pinch hitting duty. On Milton's 134th and final pitch, Rondell White hits a hanging curve 430 feet into the centerfield bleachers for a grand slam. Must've been gut wrenching. Expos lose the game, and are now 10-7 on the month.

The next game Rylance was pitching a brillant game but nearly lost it in the 9th... thankfully the Expos held on to win it in 13.

The Rockies are in 1st place... you wouldnt beleive what they did to their rotation. They signed Curt Shilling, Pedro Martinez, Greg Maddux, and Chan Ho Park. That's right 3 future HOF. I ended up winning the series 2 games to 1... thankfully I didnt have to face Pedro, who has been brutal despite Coors unfriendly confines.

Well, I'm 29-15 and heading into a 2 game home series versus the Mets. Unfortunately Endy Chavez will miss that series. And in case you were wondering Jamie Hinsdale ddint win the starting job outright. He hit .271 in 70 ABs but only had 3 walks and 2 extra base hits. He'll spend the rest of the year in AAA but will be the starting SS (probably) next year. Next, I'll size up the Mets.

GM24

07-10-2004, 05:45 PM

It's May 25th and the Mets are in town... we were suppose to face Tomo Ohka but he has a sore rotator cuff, but instead it will SP Kurt Ainsworth, who won 13 games with the Orioles last season. On the mound for the Expos is Eric Milton, who is 4-4 with a 4.56 ERA this season. The Expos come in just a half game in front of the Mets. And even though its early in the season, these games are still very important.

With Eric Chavez still on the DL, I'm going to try something different and put Zachary Wolcott in the #2 hole. Zach has an excellent eye and has decent speed, a rarity in my lineup. Becuase his power hasnt come along yet-- he hits alot more doubles than HRs, it makes sense for him to back 2nd. Why didnt I think of that in the 1st place?

The Expos took game 1, 4-3, on a walkoff homerun by Jayson Werth in the bottom of the 11th! Doesnt get much more exciting. The Expos overcame some mental errors for the victory. Three errors were made on groundballs by the Expos, and Juan Rivera decided to steal third with 2 out. I guess you can get away with doing that when you're hitting .358. At least we won, and Quentin Kaussen, who has Cy Young type numbers, pitched two innings and got the win. Opponents are hitting .149 off of Kaussen. We have 30 wins, Kaussen is responsible for saving 17 of those. He has only given up a run in 2 of his 28 apperances.

Game 2 would pit Tony Rylance against 2006 Cy Young winner Jae Wyong Seo. I'm hopong that we get alot of offense tonight... Kirn and Kaussen pithced 2 innings in relief last night and wont be available. However, my scouts have noticed some improvements in Spurling's deleivery that should make him more effective... his overall rating jumped 3 points to a 76.

All of a sudden I'm making over $80K a game on concession sales. This puzzles me... wouldnt a fan be more likely to get sloshed if his team was losing? The money is just rolling in... I've made $4.4M this season and it isnt even June.

Anyway, Game 2. I didnt get to see the game, becuase Quentin Kaussen got injured for 12 games with severe elbow tendonitis, and I cried for three hours and ten minutes. But we did win, 13-0. Tony Rylance pitched a one hitter!! He only allowed 3 baserunners. Jhonny Peralta went 4 for 4 in the game! He hit a homerun yesturday too, he's a real Met killer! (Maybe I should trade him while he's hitting .280) With that the Expos sweep the 2 game series against the Mets, and move 2 1/2 games up in the divison.

GM24

07-10-2004, 06:29 PM

May Record: 17-10
Overall Record: 33-17 3.0 GA
Runs Scored/Game: 5.4
Runs Allowed/Game: 4.4
ERA: 3.85
UERA: .55 (.11 above NL avg
FieldPct: .983 (.003 above NL avg)
SB: 20 (14th in NL)
CS: 4 (Least in NL)

UERA is something I made up (although I wouldnt be suprised if it existed in the first place) Its Unearned Runs allowed per game. I think its more of a luck thing... more of the Expos errors result in runs than the average team. If I really wanted to devise a ratio (runs per error) I would need the raw data for total team errors. If I think any more about this my head is going to explode.

Hmm.. team totals in the roster screen. I'd like to see that, maybe just outside the white box in a grey area in between the box and the scroll bar. If possible.

The Expos have only been caught stealing 4 times all year. Pretty good.

Jose Vidro hit 9 homeruns in April but only 2 in May.

There have been some real suprise teams around the league. The Pittsburgh Pirates, who have a Mogul Overall Rating of 72 (no one is injured). Pittsburgh's 2005 draft pick Joey Fras has really come into his own. The 27 year old 2B has hit .340 with 14 homeruns, matching his homerun total of the previous year. Pittsburgh ace Barry Zito is 8-0 with a 1.69 ERA in 10 starts! You talk about Cy Young Numbers! The Colorado Rockies are leading the mighty LA Dodgers by a game and a half. Pedro Martinez isnt fazed by the thin Rockie air at all and is pitching as well as he ever has been.

This is going to make for an interesting wildcard race... The Mets and the Dodgers going at it... a 95 win team might not make the playoffs with 5 good teams in the divison. Let's just hope its not my team.

GM24

07-11-2004, 03:25 AM

June 24th 2007
Quentin Kaussen had another scoreless streak stopped-- he had not been scored off since May 15th. His ERA is a pristine 1.73, and he has 19 saves. He hasn't had the chance to save to many games-- we've been on the losing end of too many close games. We're 11-10 so far this month. Ive lost 6 of the last 9 games. I was swept by an absurd White Sox team that is 57-15! What's their secret? Well, they have a .311 team BA and a 3.27 team ERA. They have a guy (Barry Wesson) who is hitting .398 with 15 homeruns. They have an outstanding defensive core, a true ace in Mark Buehrle (11-1 2.17 ERA) and a revived Billy Koch (1.23 ERA 26SV 0BS). All of the pieces have fallen together for the White Sox. I just hope we can pick up the pieces after being smacked around the past week by the AL Central.

Well just my luck, we face the Yankees. And Jason Phillips refractured his finger. Just my luck. We lost the series 2 games to 1.

June Record: 13-13
Overall Record: 46-30 (2.5 GA)

The elite five:
Pittsburgh:48-27
Los Angeles: 47-28
Montreal: 46-30
New York: 44-33
Colorado: 41-35

I'll have to play better than this if I hope to succeed in the playoffs. Granted, I faced hard teams in the Yankees and White Sox. But its the tough teams you gotta beat.

This team is built to succeed. But what needs to improve for the Expos to be the best team in the NL?

Zachary Wolcott needs to prove himself

Wolcott is tremendously talented. He hit .327 in the playoffs, and was a tremendous player in the minors. But he is hitting .241 with 4 homeruns. He bats behind Jose Vidro, Juan Rivera (whose having a tremendous year) and Jason Phillips. He could drive in well over 100 runs if he plays to his potential.

1B Jason Phillips needs to stop fratcuring finger

He's been injured three times this year. He's a great player, he's hit .323 with 10HR in 49 games. I need him in the lineup.

SP Eric Milton needs to have a better second half. He is 6-7 with a 4.91 ERA... he hasnt had this poor an ERA since his rookie year. He did win his 100th career game on June 24th. I'm sure he'll pull it together, hes a very good pitcher.

Setup man Ty Kirn needs to establish some consistency. After a poor start his ERA is down to 4.70. Kirn is tough to hit and shouldnt have too much of a problem down the stretch.

Short man Chris Spurling is talented but lacks experience. He has a 4.93 ERA and has given up to many homeruns, and has lost 5 games.

I'm looking at trading 1B Michel Hernandez. He has improved a great deal since I signed him before the 2006 seasonand has been filling in for Jason Phillips, performing admirably, hitting .307 in 88 ABs. If I do trade him it will likely be for a short man. Maybe Ill trade for Trevor Hoffman. (The Phillies want Hernandez and a rookie for him.) I'd love to get my paws on Juan Illian, one of the two super rookies in the 2005 draft, but there isnt a chance. Even if Illian has a career 5.6 ERA so far. They know he'll be godly soon.

GM24

07-12-2004, 02:30 AM

July is going to be a tough month for this team. We face the Mets 8 times, so this month is going make or break this team. We also play 3 games against the Yankees. These games all happen before July 20th. So on July 20th, I'll know how much of a push I'll want to make trade wise. The good thing about facing these teams is that I make alot of money playings these guys at home (the three games I have against the Yankees are at home).

Speaking of money, I have alot of it. $25.6 million. I'm actually almost 29th in revenue now. Thats amazing for the Expos.

I'm looking at acquiring Keith Foulke from the hapless Padres. Foulke has the same ratings that Quentin Kaussen had last year, and he has pitched very well for the Padres the past two years. The problem is that he's 33 and he's signed through 2010 at $6.8M a year. I can get him for Michel Hernandez, Brandon Larson, and 2 million dollars. Certainly worth the risk, but would he be worth anything if I wanted to get rid of him? Probably not.

Mark Prior has certainly been worth the risk, not that there was any risk there to begin with. Prior is having a monster year... he is 11-3 with a 2.82 ERA, and has 116 strikeouts in 111.2IP. Opponents hit a measly .229 off of him.. having him out there is a field day for my defense.

I took the series at home against the Yanks 2 games to 1. In the two wins, Alex Leslie struck out 12 in 8 innings and Prior struck out 11 in 8.2.

After that series we went to New York to face the Mets at Shea. Tomo Ohka pitched against his former team for the first time... and pitched a complete game shutout. Ohka allowed 9 one base hits and no walks en route to his 7th win. He is putting up career high numbers... his ERA is 3.15 this season and he should be able to post a career high total in wins (which would be 14.)

We lost the series 3 games to 1, the last of those four games being the killer, 13-3. The back end of my relief staff was chewed up in that series. I'm pretty desperate for depth. These new additions arent really working out. I'll need to address bullpen depth in the Minor League Draft so this wont be a factor in the future.

We head into the half 52-35 and have fallen a half game behind the Mets for the divison lead. It's been over a year since we've trailed the Mets. The good news is that we played well against the Marlins, save for a rare blown save by Kaussen, and 1B Jason Phillips is coming back. And, we're 5 games up on the Wildcard. Notwithstanding this team is real good. If I can add Foulke, and if Eric Milton and Zach Wolcott can have better second halves, this team could be unstoppable. Next post with be the all star game report, complete with player stats for the Expos.

GM24

07-13-2004, 03:23 AM

Record at the break this season: 52-35, .5GB
Record at the break last season: 56-32, 6.5 GA
June 2007: 13-13
June 2006: 23-4

It seems that this years team and last years squad are headed in opposite directions. Not to fear though, when this squad is healthy its a great club. Just take a look at these numbers. Go on dont be shy.

Last First Team G AVG 2B HR BB K SB R RBI SLG OBP
Chavez Endy CF 66 0.306 20 1 26 30 9 48 30 0.408 0.362
Werth Jayson RF 77 0.295 25 10 41 60 9 60 46 0.485 0.374
Rivera Juan LF 84 0.332 38 19 38 47 4 62 80 0.613 0.4
Vidro Jose 2B 83 0.285 20 17 37 44 3 48 57 0.507 0.357
Philli. Jason 1B 49 0.323 10 10 23 27 1 28 29 0.534 0.412
Martin. Victor C 67 0.293 9 7 33 38 0 31 33 0.409 0.377
Wolcott Zach 3B 82 0.249 17 5 58 48 2 47 32 0.369 0.371
Peralta Jhonny SS 68 0.223 14 3 28 58 4 25 27 0.332 0.303

Hernan. Michel 1B 31 0.32 5 3 13 25 0 13 15 0.434 0.385
Yamamo. Hiros. OF 41 0.301 7 3 8 23 2 18 21 0.419 0.342
Allen Luke LF 62 0.234 2 5 9 15 2 15 14 0.436 0.308
Miller Corky C 32 0.268 3 1 10 15 0 8 12 0.341 0.358
Larson Brandon IF 57 0.174 1 1 16 12 0 9 4 0.232 0.329

I cant complain about Endy Chavez's performance. His .362 OBP is 25 points above what how he usually performs. My scouts have noticed some improvements in Chavez's contact skills (95). He may well hit .320.

Juan Rivera is having a monster season. His numbers are out of this world. He leads the league in total bases and is 5th in OBP. He also had 15 assists out of leftfield! If he had more homeruns (T10) he would be an MVP candidate.

Victor Martinez has made a succesful recovery after undergoing surgery on his knee nearly a year ago. He has played 67 games this year, one less than all of last season, and has put up almost comparable numbers to his 2006 campaign.

Zachary Wolcott, as you must know by now, is tremendously gifted. He should be enjoying the type of success that Juan Rivera is. He doesnt have very good protection batting in front of...

Jhonny Peralta, who after getting as high as a .280 average has fallen off a good deal. Peralta has never been a good hitter, but I thought he would develop into something better than this. As long as Perlata continues to play shortstop "like he was born there", he will find a job as a starting SS. Since hes in the last year of his contract he might be in his best interest to have a better 2nd half. That 2nd half might be with another team... maybe the Giants? Hmm...

Last First Pos IP ERA G GS W L SV K BB R/9
Rotation
Prior Mark SP1 129.1 2.57 18 18 12 3 0 136 37 10.02
Milton Eric SP2 112 4.74 18 18 6 8 0 87 28 11.65
Rylanc. Tony SP3 124 3.77 19 19 11 5 0 92 30 12.27
Leslie Alex SP4 110.2 3.82 18 18 10 5 0 103 32 11.39
Astaci. Pedro SP5 72.2 4.71 13 13 5 2 0 51 28 13.13
Bullpen
Kaussn Quentn Clo 43.1 2.08 43 0 2 3 23 38 15 8.93
Kirn Ty Set 46.2 4.44 48 0 2 2 5 41 27 11.96
Taurec. Phil Sho 0.2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 27
Corcor. Roy Mid 2 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 9
Spurli. Chris Long 43.2 5.98 37 0 1 5 2 22 13 14.02
Howard Ben Alt 26.2 3.71 9 1 0 1 0 22 15 13.84
Others
Roney Matt Assign. 35.1 4.08 23 0 1 1 1 25 14 12.48
Toldeo Luis Assign. 33.1 5.4 25 0 1 0 0 27 12 15.39

Mark Prior is putting up phenomenal numbers. Prior is 7th in the NL in ERA and 2nd in wins. He has averaged more than 7 innings an outing... Prior would be a serious Cy Young contender if it werent for Pittsburgh SP Barry Zito, who leads the league in Wins and ERA.

I have three 25 year old starting pitchers that are T5th or better in wins in Prior, Rylance, and Leslie. That is one dominant core.

Eric Milton pitched well in his last start, going 7 inings and allowing 2 runs, but against a weak hitting Marlin squad that is 15th in the NL in homeruns. Milton has been in a rut but certainly has the skills to turn this around and have a good 2nd half.

Pedro Astacio's skills have deteriorated a good deal. Now his overall rating is a 67, but he does have average skills. He has settled down after a rocky April. Not much is expected of Astacio. He will not be resigned at the end of the year.

Looking at the skills of the players in the pen, this isnt as huge a problem as it should be. Kaussen is remarkable, and Kirn has had some good outings of late. Phil Taureck has turned heads as a AAA closer and was promoted to the majors. Cocoran and Spurling are skilled as well. I have the highest ranked bullpen according to the Mogul Times. I have the highest overall rating in the NL by 10 points. It's hard to improve this team, becuase there really isnt much I want to give up. However I do have alot of hitting prospects, and if I see something I like, I will strike.

Expos All-Stars:
2B Jose Vidro (Starter)
LF Juan Rivera (Starter)
SP Mark Prior
RP Quentin Kaussen

Jose Vidro hit what turned out to be the game winning homerun in extra innings as the NL won the all star game for the 2nd year in a row... he balied out Mark Prior, who blew the save in the 9th. Nonetheless, an exciting game at the Metrodome.

GM24

07-13-2004, 11:04 PM

JULY 14, 2007
Phillies receive Jhonny Peralta (SS), Michel Hernandez (1B), Toby Calande (1B), Brandon Larson (SS) and Bill Day (RF)
Expos receive Trevor Hoffman (RP) and George Wernick (CF)
Phillies receive $2 million

The Expos reacquire Trevor Hoffman, but whos that other guy, George Wernick? Well, we was the first pick of the 2007 draft, and he looks like he could be the next Ken Griffey Jr!

CF George Wernick, 19, was the 1st pick of the 2007 draft, and projects to be a future superstar. Werrick has impressive power, he hit 10 homeruns in spring training! Even more impressive is his upside... he has a peak rating of 99! Werrick is a phenomally strong player, he has a good strong arm. He still has a way to go, but might be ready in 2009.

The Expos welcomed back RP Trevor Hoffman. The 38 year old Hoffman struggled as a Phil, posting a 5.98 ERA. But my scouts have watched him up close and have informed me that he hasnt lost a step skill wise. Hoffman still posseses top notch velocity... he has struck 61 in 46.2 innings... he has left some pitches up and has allowed more cheap hits than usual, but nothing is wrong with him. The biggest concern with Hoffman, and with any 38 year old RP, would be health.

In the deal the Pirates received Jhonny Peralta. Peralta was the Expos starting SS from 2005-2007. He was an acrobat at shortstop, hauling in balls at an unprecented rate. He averaged 5 1/4 plays in his tenure with Montreal. Peralta has not developed at a hitter and although he is 23 it is unlikely that he ever will. After hitting a promising .257 when he was 21, he has yet to approach that mark in each of the past two years. Like I said before, As long as Perlata continues to play shortstop "like he was born there", he will find a job as a starting SS.

1B/C Michel Hernandez may be 27 but has plenty of room to improve. An otherwise average player, Hernandez has found his way onto a major league roster due to his knack for hitting singles. Hernandez has made 31 starts this season in place of the injured Phillips, and has hit .320 with 3 homeruns in that time. Hernandez's contract expires at the end of the year but his demands are not excessive.

1B Toby Calande was drafted in the 5th round of the 2005 draft by the Montreal Expos. Calande, 26, has developed into an average player in that time, and could develop into a major league starter given time.

IF Brandon Larson was brought into be a defensive replacement, but turned out to be the lone backup IF on my roster. Larson is a career .194 hitter who's only talent was with the glove. He will ride the pine with the Phillies

Minor League RF Bill Day was drafted in the 5th round by the Expos last year. Upon learning he was traded, Day's peak dropped from a 75 to a 66. At best Day will be a 4th OF on a poor team.

The Phillies also get $2 million dollars... and are a team that could use it.

The Phillies were losing a little money and were probably glad to get rid of Trevor Hoffman's contract, seeing that he wasnt performing and that the team is 18 games out. But why would the Phillies give up their future? Well, their CF Carlos Lee is signed through 2013, and he's a pretty good player, but Wernick has a world of potential... you just cant give that up. Well, at least Michel Hernandez has the potential to be an excellent contact hitter, and they really needed a SS in Jhonny Peralta. The Phillies Overall rating improved 3 points to a 65, and the Expos improved 1 point, to an 89.

And so another big trade goes down. Trevor Hoffman will step back into his old role as a setup man in the Expos pen to revive the Kaussen-Hoffman-Kirn trio, three names you can trust. And the Expos also get a young talented CF they will groom into the next great thing.

GM24

07-14-2004, 05:08 PM

After the all star break, we had a four game series with the Mets at home. It was important to win this series. We lost the first game, 7-5. I was very upset that Leslie was taken out for a pinch hitter in the 5th inning. I dont care that there were 2 RISP. We were down 3, and it was the 5th inning. I turned pinch hitting down again... now its at one quarter full. We ended up dropping the series 3 games to 1... I cant say Im not disapointed.

To add insult to injury we were swept in a two game set by the 44-49 Marlins, who are on a bit of a roll.

July 22nd 2007
LF Juan Rivera out 3 weeks with ankle stress fracture

And this adds injury to insult, I guess. Rivera has emerged as one of the league's premire players... its better that he gets injured now than in the playoffs.

But then the Expos caught fire, and pulled off 10 consecutive victories, all against the Braves, Marlins, and Phillies, who are now all under .500. Trevor Hoffman has been golden since coming over, he has given up no runs in 7 innings. Mark Prior, Tony Rylance and Alex Leslie have made up about 60% of the teams victories, and have pitched well down the stretch. Mark Prior is 14-3 and has been worth every penny. Jason Phillips has been a big part of the offense and has hit .329, and Quentin Kaussen has 30 saves. LF Luke Allen has filled in well for Juan Rivera and has hit 3 homeruns since the all star break.

With the full unit intact, no team is as solid through and through than the Expos. But to beat the good teams I gotta keep these guys healthy. I upped my medical spending from 9th (at 6mil) to 6th (8mil per year). We havent really had a fully healthy team yet, but my only concern is our health heading into the playoffs.

Making the playoffs themselves wont be a problem, barring a disaster. The Expos are only .5 games ahead of the Mets for the divison, but the Mets in turn are 8.5 up on the Wildcard. Still, it would mean alot more to win the NL East for the 2nd straight year, something the Expos I'm sure have never done in their history.

July Record: 17-11
Overall Record: 63-41, .5 GA.
OPS: .780 (4th in NL)
Opponent On Base: .314 (T1st in NL)
Home Runs: 100 (11th in NL)

GM24

07-15-2004, 12:22 AM

August Record: 18-10
Expos Overall Record: 81-51, 3.0GB
Phillies Overall Record: 51-81, 33.0 GB
Wild Card Watch: Expos 12.5 GA

August 13th 2007
SP Eric Milton suffers ruptured cervical disc, out 2 months

August 19th, 2007
RP Ty Kirn fractures foot, out 2 week

In keeping with the times, more Expos star players have been injured. SP Eric Milton will sit out the rest of his sub par season with an injury. Milton was 7-10 with a 4.75 ERA and wasn't his dominant self in 2007. Eric is in the prime of his career at 30 and his contract expires at the end of next season.

RP Ty Kirn has been shellacked the past two outings, and it has been discovered that he has fractured his foot. He pitched 2 straight apperances in Coors Field, and in a combined 1.1 innings he gave up 7 runs! Kirn has had a season to forget but every relief pitcher is prone to a year like this. I hope he can get it together in time for the playoffs.

The Expos started off the month hot, and had an 8 game winning streak that lasted through mid august. But to end the month the Expos won just 5 of 10, and at the end of the month the Mets were three games up in the divison, much to the chagrin of my team.

Despite the continued injury problems and bullpen inconsistencies there has been some excellent play from some of the Expos. LF Juan Rivera continues to amaze, he reminds many of former Expo Vladimir Guerrero, with his cannon of an arm and his ability to hit the nastiest pitch for an extra base hit. Rivera has slugged an NL leading .612 and has struck out just 57 times. Rivera has an OBP of .399 and has driven in 107... he certianly warrants MVP attention with his great all around play.

Jason Phillips has hit .324, but thats expected of the former batting champion. Zachary Wolcott has started to swing the bat like we expected... his batting average has climbed to .275 and he gets on base an astounding 41 percent of the time. C Victor Martinez has recovered very well from his injury last season and it hitting .312. Jayson Werth and Endy Chavez are performing well.. Jose Vidro is hitting just .279... he is in the position to fail to reach .300 for just the 2nd time in 9 full seasons. SS Jaime Hinsdale has hit .276 but hasnt hit for much power and has only drawn 8 walks. In alot of regards though he is a better fiedler than even Peralta... he has fielded at an unreal .990 clip and has made over 5 plays a game. Hinsdale is a good player who still has room to grow but will never reach the elite level of those that surround him on the field.

But someone who has that potential, suprisingly, is Mark Drake. I told you the Drake was good. Drafted with the 27th pick last year, Drake projected to be an average starting third basemen, but now his peak is at 89... he hit .296 with 19HR in AAA this season, and should hit that well in the majors someday. However, his fielding ratings are in the low 70s... I hope those ratings can improve a good deal.

Prior, Rylance, and Leslie are three excellent starting pitchers, they all have ERAs under 3.7. Other than that, I have nothing. The injury to Eric Milton is pretty devastating... 36 year old Pedro Astacio will be relied on to be that fourth starter in the playoffs. Milton will be back in time for the World Series... if we make it that far.

With Milton injured, and Alex Leslie not able to pitch his next start... I dont have anyone else capable of starting in his place. It looks like Matt Roney, a decent pitcher who has a 43 endurance, will start that day... I hope he can give me 5 good innings. I certainly need some more pitchers for next year.

The bullpen is still in some disarray, but Trevor Hoffman has been steady as a rock. In 26.2 IP, he has given up just 1 run, and he's won 3 games for us. (His ERA before joining the team was nearly 6). Chris Spurling has been a failure for us... his ERA is 5.31 but it should be alot higher for the amount of hits and homeruns he's given up. Luis Toledo has also given up alot of HR's; 14 in 40 innings. The amount of homeruns my relief staff has given up has been alarming... perhaps they are being overworked.

It's all but guaranteed that the Expos will be in the playoffs... the team is 12.5 up on the Rockies for the NL Wild Card. But its the divison crown we're shooting for.. because Id rather not face the league best Dodgers in a short series. We face the Mets three times away and three times at home early in the month. These 6 games will determine the fate of the Expos. Stay tuned.

GM24

07-15-2004, 10:06 PM

The two series coming up against the Mets is probably the last chance for the Expos to position themselves into 1st place. Coming into the first of these series at Shea, the Expos are 3.5GB. It's my hope that we can win this series and close the gap.

I dont know if I mentioned this but SP Jae Wyong Seo was lost for the year with a torn knee ligament, the same injury that Victor Martinez suffered a while back. It's a very paiful injury, but there is a chance that he will come back as his dominant self. Seo won the Cy Young last year and was having another great season... its unfourtunate but works to my advantage.

In game 1, Mark Prior will face Horacio Ramirez, who Expos fans remember for winning Game 1 of last year's World Series. Ramirez is having himself another average but effective season.

Horacio Ramirez was taken out for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the 4th. I dont care if the score was 3-0 Expos, the bases were loaded and the pinch hitter was Jim Thome... you cant do this. I have to admit though my heart skipped a beat when they did it... Thome is a 35 now and came off a season like what Jason Giambi did in '03 (he couldve passed for legally blind), but still good.

Wolcott hit a solo shot in the 7th batting number 3 in the lineup... he was 2-2 with 3 walks. Expos win the game 5-1, and Prior wins his 18th game.

In the 2nd game of the series at Shea, the Expos would face Tomo Ohka again. Ohka has a 3.37 ERA, which is great, but a closer look at his numbers would seem to indicate that hes been lucky.

That theme would continue in tonights game.. in both the 1st and 2nd innings Ohka had runners on 1st and 2nd with no one out. Meanwhile, Alex Leslie has struck out 4 hitters in the first 2 innings.

Ohka's luck ran out when Rivera hit his 2nd homerun in 2 days and his 29th on the season to make it 1-0 Expos... Expos won fairly comfortably, 5-0. Alex Leslie pitched 8 innings, striking out 11 and allowing just 1 hit and 1 walk, and he gets his 14th win.

Game 3 will feature budding star Tony Rylance, and he will square off with Jamey Wright, who struggled last season but has really (W)righted himself in New York, he is enjoying his best year in the bigs since 2000. Already he has established a career high in wins with 12. The day today is September 5th, 2007... so theoretically this is my 22nd birthday. Needless to say, when my birthday was announced by the Mets's PA man, I was lauded with boos.

Tony Rylance had another great game, going 8 innings and allowing a run, and Quentin Kaussen saved his NL leading 35th game as the Expos win 3-1, and sweep the Mets to pull within half a game!

The final series against the Mets will be in the next post, and after that should be the end of the season report.

GM24

07-17-2004, 04:24 PM

Since the last series with the Mets, we dropped a three game series against a suprising Marlins team, who move over .500. The Marlins have been helped by a good bullpen, and a great starting pitcher in Dontrelle Willis. They have managed to get it done despite an anemic offense, in which no one has hit 20 homeruns and only Luis Castillo is hitting over .300.

Meanwhile, the Mets faced the last place Phillies and won that series 3 games to 1, and moved to 2 games up in the divison. The Mets top five relivers have each pitched at least 65 innings and all have ERAs under 3.9. Mets new acquisition Felix Rodriguez is 9-0 in the short reliever role. 1B Mark Teixiera is looking like the guy the Mets gave a 5 year $85 million dollar deal, he is hitting .303 with 38 homeruns. An aging Jim Thome has been great in limited action pinch hitting and playing DH for the Mets... he has hit 14 homeruns in 139 at bats.

So the Mets make the long trip up to Montreal for a pivotal three game set against the defending divison champs, the Expos.

In game 1 of the 3 game set, Jamey Wright (12-6, 4.18) will represent the Mets and Alex Leslie (14-8, 3.51) will pitch for the Expos on a crisp Friday eve.

Alex Leslie pitched a three hit shutout and the Expos won 2-0. The Expos played small ball tonight, as Eric Chavez, Juan Rivera, and Jamie Hinsdale each stole a base, taking advantage of catcher Ben Davis's mediocre arm. Everyone on the Expos (except the pitcher) got on base at least once in the game.

...

The pitching matchup in Game 2 was the Mets Kurt Ainsworth (7-3, 3.07) against Tony Rylance (16-7 3.27). Ainsworth has turned out to be a good insurance pickup for the Mets. Kurt has two sound seasons with the Orioles and has excelled in what certainly is a pitchers park. The 27 year old doesnt have the endurance to pitch deep into a ballgame but he can give you 6 good innings.

The Mets won this one, 8-7. The Expos scored 3 runs in bottom of the fourth, but the Mets battled back, and in the 6th with the score 3-2, pinch hitter and former Expo Ken Harvey came in with runners on base. He hit a 2 RBI double to give the Mets the lead. Hank Blalock would later hit a homerun, and the Mets made the score 8-4 with the Expos coming up in the bottom of the 9th. Jason Werth and Juan Rivera hit homeruns off of John Patterson, but with 2 out and the winning run at the bat in Jose Vidro, the Expos could not come through. The Mets win a big game and are 2 games up on the Expos once again.

...

Its Sunday afternoon, a great day to play a ball game. Ben Howard (3-4, 4.76) will start and fill in for the injured Eric Milton, and the Mets will have ace Steve Trachsel (10-5, 4.57) on the mound.

CF Mike Cameron and young prospect 2B Danny Garcia got on base, and Hank Blalock hit a three run bomb, and the Mets had three runs on teh board before an out was recorded. Howard settled down and would strike out 4 of the next 6 hitters he faced... but in the 5th he allowed a three run homer to Mark Teixiera and was pulled. 4.2 IP, 7 earned runs. Mets won the game 8-0, Hank Blalock hit 2 homeruns, Steve Trachsel throws a one hit shutout. A crushing blow in the swing game of this series.

That leaves the Expos 3 games behind the Mets for the divison lead. Even though the playoffs are pretty much guaranteed, Winning the divison is very important.

If we win the divison:
>Home field advantage in the Divisonal Series against the Pirates
>Home field advantage against the Mets if we face them in the NLCS

If we dont:
>No home field advantage against the NL best Dodgers in the Divisonal Series
>No home field advantage against the Mets if we face them in the NLCS

See that importance? Besides all that, i dont want to get in becuase of the Wild Card. I want the NL East Champs banner hanging from my rafters. The Expos have a slightly easier schedule over the final three weeks... we face the Phillies seven times and the last place Reds three. The Mets face no last teams in the home stretch.

Well, it's only a three game defecit... it could happen. Will it? Find out in the next post.

GM24

07-17-2004, 07:32 PM

Its October 1st, and the 96 win Expos are only one game back with three games remaining. The 97 win Mets will face the 83-76 Marlins while the Expos will try to put away the 80-79 Atlanta Braves. The Marlins are hampered by injuries, but have had a good September nonetheless. Dontrelle Willis will recover from his wrist injury in time to pitch against the Mets tommorow. The Braves in the meantime, have two starting position players and one very good starter injured, but are deep enough that they have good replacements. Let's hope that the Marlins can continue their hot streak and that the Braves succumb to my team.

October 1st:
Expos beat Braves 14-10
Marlins shutout Mets 5-0
Expos GB: 0

The Braves used 6 pitchers in the game in a real slugfest, and A.J Burnett shutout the Mets and we are tied in the divison!

October 2nd:
Expos come from behind to beat Braves 4-3
Mets come from behind to beat Marlins 3-2

Juan Rivera hit a walkoff two run homerun to win the game in the 9th. Meanwhile the Mets had last game heroics of their own, coming from a run down to win it in the 9th... the hero of that game was none other than Ken Harvey, who hit the game winning two run homerun there.

In the season finale, Pedro Astacio (12-4, 4.72) will make his 429th career start against Atlanta ace Russ Ortiz (15-8, 3.47) Astacio allowed just 2 runs on 8 innings in hsi last start, lets hope he has that kind of stuff in today's game. For the Mets, Horacio Ramirez (10-14, 5,22 ERA) will face Marlins rookie Toby Jackson (9-15, 5.10 ERA) Jackson was the 9th pick of the 2007 amateur draft and looks like a future Tony Rylance...

The Mets won their game, 2-1 in 13 innings, and... the Expos won theirs 7-4! The Expos sweep the Braves, both teams are 99-63...

But there wont be a tiebraker to determine the divison winner. Instead the Expos and Mets will settle with a 1st place tie, and the Expos will have to face... the Dodgers in the Divisonal Series. Ugh... we were oh so close. This Dodger team is not a challenge I look forward too. You'll see why... next.

GM24

07-19-2004, 03:36 AM

September/October Record: 18-12
Overall Record: 99-63 (T1st in NL East) -1
Batting Average: .283 (1st in NL) +.02
On Base: .355 (T1st in NL) +.03
Slugging: .439 (4th in NL)
Opponent On Base: .313 (1st in NL) +.10
ERA: 3.93 (5th in NL)
Home Record: 53-28
Away Record: 46-35
Homeruns: 166 (10th in NL) +28
Stolen Bases: 69 (14th in NL) +9
SB% 73.4 (2nd in NL)
Save %: 77.4 (2nd in NL) +7.8%
CG: 13 (T3rd in NL) [size=1]-9[size]
Fielding .983 (T2nd in NL) +.02
Defense Average .693 (T4th in NL)

The NL East

Despite ranking number 1 in many major team categories, the Expos could not capture their divison, and had just the second best record in the league to the 103 win Dodger team.

Well the reason for that is the NL East was a highly competetive divison... The Mets and Expos won 99 games, the Marlins won 83, and the Braves won 80.

The Marlins were real overacheivers in 2007... howd they win 83 games? Well, 22 year old Dennis Stoyler, the Marlins 2nd round pick of 2005, really established himself as a contact hitter, he came out of nowhere to hit .294. He should enjoy a long career. A.J Burnett and Dontrelle Willis are great pitchers who each had great years. But the key to the Marlins success was Armando Benitez, who saved 33 games, and with his help the Marlins had a 83.3 save conversion percent, tops in the league by a good margin.

On the converse, the 80-82 Braves seriously underacheived. Two prominent position players had terrible years. Richard Hidalgo had a year long slump. His batting average fell 101 points from last year, and his homerun total was halved in just 6 less at bats. His rating skills have deteriorated a good deal, at best he's now a .265 hitter with some pop, and he's just 30 years old. Morgan Ensberg, who hit 40 homeruns last year, managed just .239 with 21 homers. He too is 30, and his best years are probably behind him. So sad. Well, must've been that voodoo magic. Now if only that will work on Mets all-stars Hank Blalock and Nomar Garciaparra.... actually Nomar has a similar year to Jose Vidro, who had a subpar year. They are 32 and 31 respectively. Hmm... more on Vidro later.

But the real reason they struggled... well, they had a rookie closer. Granted, a pretty skilled closer, but a rookie closer who lost 9 games and had a 6.2 ERA. Closers are important. How did my Quentin do? Glad you asked... 38 saves, 1.77 ERA, just 20 years old. Life is good.

Finances

The Expos made $15.6 million in the regular season, and have $31.95M in their coffers. And had their games nationally telelvised. Not that anyone watched these games.
The team payroll is at $50.4 Million, last in the majors by 15 mil. Miscellaneous expenses are at 6th/7th/7th. (7M each). Revenue was the highest its been since I've took over, at $80.4M so far.

The Marlins couldnt make it out of debt this year despite a winning record. They wont have to worry about losing any stars this year, lucky for them. They'll just have to fill out their starting rotation with draft picks... never pretty.

The Braves lost money... well, they had a $118.8M payroll and didnt get it done. They need to rebuild. The Mets lost money as well with their $154M payroll... but they have the cash on hand to do that.

This year 20 of 30 teams lost money... which is actually about right. You know I'm thinking, if I continue to make money, I might be able to build a stadium in a couple years. I would probbaly need a loan from the city though. And if the fans were very happy (A- or better) then maybe they would be OK with a $100 million dollar loan... with $140M coming back over 15 years. That's probably pretty generous. If there is anyone out there that knows his or her math... if I got a good interest rate on a $100 million dollar loan, (I'm guessing it would probably be compunded), how much would I owe back in total after 15 years?

2007 NL Leader Board

Batting Average:
1. Pablo Clavet (AZ) .345
2. Ray Olmedo (CIN) .337
3. Juan Rivea (MON) .330
4. Victor Martinez (MON) .329
...
6. Endy Chavez (MON) .320

The NL Batting Average leaders were dominanted by players under 30. Arizona 2B Pablo Clavet, for example. Who is Pablo Clavet?? Well fans, Clavet was the 15th overall pick of the 2005 amateur draft. He actually hit .379 in his rookie season, but did not qualify becuase he only had 206 at bats. It was a sign of things to come for the 27 year old. 24 year old SS Ray Olmedo performed well in his first full season... he is a four tool player, stealing 12 bases, hitting 40 doubles, and making better than 5 1/2 plays a game at short. If he hadnt made 33 errors at short (tied for most among NL shortstops), he would be a five tool guy.

Check it out-- 3 Expos hit .320 or better. Juan Rivera had an absurd year, he should contend for MVP. His stats and NL rankings: .330 (3), 52 doubles (1), 36 homers (T6), 138 RBI (1), 1.035 OPS (T1) 27 outfield assists (1). His chief competitor is Lance Berkman... Lance played in more games and hit more HR and had the same OPS... but only 6 assists. And the Astros won 21 less games... Juan might get the nod here. One other thing... Rivera and Berkman are both LF... Rivera got the nod to start the all star game. So the fans like him.

Meanwhile, Victor Martinez's "debilitating" injury is old news.. he finished very strong, and hit an impressive .329 with 14 homers for the year. Somehow, only 59 RBIs.... Expos CF Endy Chavez quietly had a fine season and hit a career best .320 with 45 doubles.

On Base Leaders:
1. Lance Berkman (MIL) .429
2. Todd Helton (COL) .416
3. Jeff Rivera (MON) .405
4. Victor Martinez (MON) .404
...
6. Zachary Wolcott (MON) .398
8. Jason Phillips (MON).397

Slugging Leaders:
1. Juan Rivera (MON) .630
2. Lance Berkman (MIL) .606
3. Geoff Jenkins (PIT) .559
...
9. Jason Phillips (MON) .520

Geoff Jenkins, 31, has seen his slugging percent go up in each of the past four years... Juan Rivera lead the league in the category... maybe he ought to be MVP. Four Expos had an OBP of .397 or better... Where are the Dodgers on these lists? Well, the only offensive player that had a great year for LA was RF Jody Gerut (.316, 31HR). No other starter hit better than .285. The Dodgers are very much pitching oriented, as you will see.

Homers
1. Manny Ramirez (CHC) 44
T2. Lance Berkman (MIL) 42
T2. Geoff Jenkins (PIT) 42
4. Mark Teixiera (NYM) 40
...
T6. Juan Rivera (MON) 36

Another LF might be up for MVP honors... Jenkins hit 42 homers, but whiffed 146 times and hit .272... maybe not.

Wins
T1. Jason Jennings (LAD) 19
T1. Mark Prior (MON) 19
T3. Tony Rylance (ARI) 18
T3 Barry Zito (HOU) 18
...
T5 Alex Leslie (MON) 17

Even though I consider wins to be a statstic of secondary importance, I wanted to point out that Mark Prior won 19. Tony Rylance has had identical records of 18-8 in his first two seasons, and his ERA dropped from 3.72 to 3.32. Alex Leslie (17-10, 3.69) may well be up for rookie of the year. Mark Prior was 19-8 with a 2.81 ERA, 252K and had a great first year with the Expos, first of many, and could win a Cy Young himself if a certain Jason Jennings didnt have the year he did, after being rescued from the Rockies last winter. Prior did have 122 more Ks than Jennings...

ERA
1. Jason Schmidt (SFG) 2.21
2. Jason Jennings (LAD) 2.43
3. Barry Zito (PIT) 2.61
...
5. Mark Prior (MON) 2.81

K
1. Mark Prior (MON) 252
2. Kerry Wood (CHC) 248
3. Pedro Martinez (COL) 239

Pedro had a very good year at Coors. His ERA of 3.57 was best of anyone on the active roster by more than a run. There was no discernable effect on young pitchers by his presence.

Milestones

On May 5th, 2007, Yankee SS Alex Rodriguez, 30, hit his 500th homerun... against the orginization that drafted him 15 years ago, the Seattle Mariners, in Safeco Field. He also collected his 1500th RBI in August. Rodriguez led the AL in HR (59) and tied the lead for RBI (162). He now has 544 HRs in 13 seasons.

Chicago Cub Manny Ramirez celebrated Independence Day with his 500th HR, en route to a homerun crown. The 33 year old has never hit more than 48 in a season.

36 year old Mariano Rivera saved his 400th game on July 17th. He has 404 career saves, every one of them with the Yanks.

On July 26th, 2007, Oakland A DH Barry Bonds, now 41, hit his 800th homerun at home against the Rangers. He finished the year with 57 homeruns, 817 on his career. The A's lost 99 games.

And finally, 6 weeks after being traded from the Expos, Jhonny Peralta hit for the cycle as a Phillie. Three days later he ruptured a disc and was lost for the remainder of the season.

GM24

07-19-2004, 03:45 AM

Ladies and Gentleman, your 2007 Montreal Expos

Last First Pos. G AVG 2B HR BB K SB R RBI SLG OBP
Chavez Endy CF 137 0.32 45 9 50 62 20 113 77 0.466 0.37
Werth Jayson RF 152 0.29 48 13 87 126 18 114 81 0.447 0.38
Wolcott Zach 3B 157 0.277 33 22 116 89 4 99 91 0.454 0.398
Rivera Juan LF 135 0.33 52 36 66 72 7 105 138 0.63 0.405
Philli. Jason 1B 119 0.314 37 20 57 57 1 78 85 0.52 0.397
Vidro Jose 2B 158 0.277 40 27 66 78 4 88 102 0.469 0.343
Martin. Victor C 128 0.329 18 14 58 72 0 69 59 0.457 0.404
Hinsda. Jaime SS 92 0.266 16 1 16 43 4 39 41 0.344 0.295

Allen Luke LF 133 0.254 10 11 28 34 3 40 38 0.464 0.34
Yamamo. Hirosh. OF 60 0.293 8 3 12 25 3 24 24 0.395 0.343
Miller Corky C 81 0.267 9 1 18 33 1 19 25 0.337 0.349
Laker Tim C 8 0.118 0 0 1 5 0 0 0 0.118 0.167
Alvare. Rico IF 9 0.125 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 0.125 0.222

The top seven in this lineup can really hurt you... no NL team can rally offensively like them. Luke Allen supplied some power on an otherwise thin bench.

Last First Team IP ERA G GS W L SV K BB R/9
Prior Mark Ace 227.2 2.81 33 33 19 8 0 252 67 10.91
Rylanc. Tony SP2 227.2 3.32 34 34 18 8 0 176 60 11.58
Leslie Alex SP3 200 3.69 33 32 17 10 0 193 54 11.07
Milton Eric SP4 142 4.75 23 23 7 10 0 109 35 11.85
Astaci. Pedro SP5 162.1 4.66 28 28 13 4 0 110 51 12.2

Kaussn Quentn Closr 81.1 1.77 80 0 4 4 38 72 27 9.18
Hoffma. Trevor Setup 90 3.6 85 0 9 2 1 110 37 11.7
Roney Matt Short 74 4.38 46 0 2 2 1 53 31 12.89
Spurli. Chris Short 73.1 5.03 58 0 4 5 2 46 19 13.13
Toldeo Luis Mid 46 5.87 35 0 1 0 1 35 15 15.46
Kirn Ty Mid 60.1 6.27 61 0 4 4 5 53 31 13.72
Howard Ben Long 86.2 5.3 20 11 5 5 0 75 45 13.81
Mears Chris Long 14.1 4.4 5 1 0 1 0 8 1 8.79

This pitching staff looks fairly well built for the playoffs. The Expos have 3 dominant starters, 1 wild card in Eric Milton and 2 dominant releivers, with 1 wild card in Ty Kirn. Trevor Hoffman redeemed himself of that tag after coming over from Philidephia with a 5.98 ERA. In 43.1 innings with the Expos Hoffman had a 1.04 ERA! However winning in the playoffs takes a complete effort from everyone, Eric Milton and Ty Kirn will need to step it up after having off years.

In the next post, the stage will be set for the playoffs. Expos face the LA Dodgers in the divisonal series.

vale

07-20-2004, 02:16 AM

All of the transactions disappeared. I have no idea how. I'm upset about it.

I've seen this too. For some reasons, sometimes when your saving, the game crashes randomly and saves everything but the transactions.

http://forum.sportsmogul.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=55740

GM24

07-20-2004, 10:55 PM

Well, I'm over it now. I've been using a backup copy to look at prior transactions. I have a hole from April 1- late August 2006. Not that bad. Anyway...

2007 Playoff Preview

AL:
White Sox (111-51)
Orioles (102-60)

Rangers (109-53)
Yankees (103-59)

NL:
Dodgers (103-59)
Expos (99-63)

Mets (99-63)
Pirates (91-71)

There was a great disparity of talent in the American League... 5 teams in the league didnt manage 70 wins this season. Nothing went right for the Toronto Blue Jays, had a franchise worst record of 48 wins. There were only three guys; Carlos Delgado (.300 45HR) Vernon Wells (.288 18HR) and talented young LF Mark Scoville (.299 30HR), who was the #3 pick of the draft in 2006. Four teams took advantage of this and won 100+ games.

The Chicago White Sox were one of those teams... they had the best record in baseball since the Seattle Mariners won 116 in 2001. The White Sox have many talented individuals offensively. Free agent pickup 2B Mike Young was snagged from Texas, signing a 7 year $102.2M contract, and won the batting title by hitting .349, and might win a gold glove too. Barry Wesson was also signed to a 4 year $33M deal and had a breakthrough year hitting .344 with 30 homeruns. But Joe Crede, who was hitting .316, tore his rotator cuff and will miss the playoffs. One knock on the Sox offense is that they dont set the table for these guys; leadoff man Coco Crisp and Angel Berroal, who bats #2, had OBA of under .350. The White Sox benefit from a very good pitching staff. Mark Buehrle won 21 games and is a favorite for the Cy Young Award. He is complimented by Esteban Loaiza and his 3.43 ERA. Closer Billy Koch is a lock for the Rolaids relief award... 46 saves, just 1 blown. His right hand man is All-Star Damasto Marte, who is a free agent next year, hope I can afford him. The Sox have a very deep bullpen, and they are favorties to win the series.

They will face a 102 win Oriole team whose 1-8 hitters hit .285 or better. Free agent pickup Austin Kearns lead the team in production with .945... the 2005 batting champion had a bit of an off year but is still a feared hitter... Jerry Hairston is an excellent 2nd basemen who will command a pretty penny in free agency in the off season. he hit a career best .323 with 16HR and 118 runs scored, and he should win a gold glove. The Orioles have an excellent bullpen... Joe Nathan won 13 games in 118 innings in the pen, and Jorge Julio saved 38 games. However, after 17 game winner Sidney Ponson, the Orioles are weak in starting pitching. Oliver Perez (5.1 ERA) and Rodrigo Lopez (4.3) will need to pitch the best games of their life for the O's to have a chance.

The defending Champion Texas Rangers improved their team via free agency. 3B Bruno Jarvis hit 31 homeruns as a rookie for the Rangers last year, but they went ahead and signed a gold glover in 3B Adrian Beltre, who hit .328 with 48 bombs! He might be the gold glover and silver slugger for his position. The Rangers also signed speedster Alex Sanchez to play centerfield, he swiped an impressive 61 bases. The Rangers also signed Tony Armas Jr., who established himself as the Ranger ace, he was 19-3 with a 3.20 ERA! 21 year old Andy Gervais pitched his first full season in the bigs and led the league in strikeouts... with just 209.

But if anyone can disrupt a pitching staff its the Yankees, who set a franchise record with 260 home runs. Alex Rodriguez accounted for 59 of those, winning the homerun crown. Magglio Ordonez hit a career high 39, and Travis Lee had a career year in place of Jason Giambi, who will never be the same player after an injury last season, hitting .316 with 33 HR, and did not make an error at 1st. Pitching was another story... no one was particularly dominanting on the staff... ace Javier Vazquez was 16-3 but with a 4.10 ERA. Shortly after claiming his 400th save, Mariano Rivera was moved to mid relief... he isnt quite the dominant closer he once was, finishing the year with a 4.7 ERA. The new closer Ricardo Rincon may have had an off year (4.22 ERA) but he is an excellent pitcher.
...

Onto the NL, the Mets got the luck of the draw and will face the 91 win Pirates. Former Rangers 3B Hank Blalock and 1B Mark Teixiera combined to hit 76 homeruns...Nomar Garciaparra struggled, his batting average fell 49 points to .277. The Mets pitching staff is plagued with injuries... 2006 NL Cy Young award winner Jae Wyong Seo tore a knee ligament back in July.. he will not be available for the postseason. without him the starting staff is just average... Steve Trachsel is OK, Horacio Ramirez (former Ranger) pitched well in the playoffs last year but has never had a good regular season. But Tomo Ohka, who was traded for Steve Phillips, was 12-10 with a 3.10 ERA. But if the starting pitching ever gets out of hand there is an excellent bullpen to back it up. Braden Looper had an ERA of under 2 and Felix Rodriguez, who wont be avaialble to pitch until Game 4, was a perfect 9-0.

The Pirates started off the season hot but played .500 ball in the second half. Despite that, Pittsburgh won their divison by 8 games. The big star on this team is Barry Zito, who won 18 games and posted a 2.61 ERA. After him and the #7 pick of 2007, Dave McGloin, who was 14-8, there really isnt another good starter. The #3 and 5 starters on the team had poor records, 6 and 8 wins respectively. The Pirates are good offensively, Geoff Jenkins leading the team with 42 HR and they had the highest team batting average and HR total in their divison. They are the cinderella team of the playoffs. Winning the divisonal series, at least, is not out of the question for this team.

GM24

07-20-2004, 10:59 PM

G AVG HR SB OBP Last First Pos. MONvLAD Last First Team G AVG HR SB OBP
137 0.32 9 20 0.37 Chavez Endy CF = Thurst. Joe 2B 128 0.285 4 14 0.366
152 0.29 13 18 0.38 Werth Jayson RF = Kendall Jason C 153 0.276 6 15 0.341
157 0.277 22 4 0.398 Wolcot. Zach 3B < Bradley Milton CF 157 0.285 13 14 0.387
135 0.33 36 7 0.405 Rivera Juan LF << Colbru. Greg 1B 149 0.263 32 3 0.316
119 0.314 20 1 0.397 Philli. Jason 1B < Dear Nijel LF 150 0.276 24 12 0.355
158 0.277 27 4 0.343 Vidro Jose 2B < Gerut Jody RF 153 0.316 31 6 0.388
128 0.329 14 0 0.404 Martin. Victor C << LaRocca Greg 3B 119 0.271 6 5 0.345
92 0.266 1 4 0.295 Hinsda. Jaime SS = Uribe Juan SS 153 0.272 14 10 0.33

Batting/Lineup
Looking at the Dodgers offense, well, where is it? The only player who put up great numbers for them was Jody Gerut, who overacheived this season. The Dodgers had no real answer for the loss of Adrian Beltre... Greg LaRocca is an OK hitter... but a bad fielder... they cant wait for their 2007 1st round draft pick, 3B Elmo Farrar (who I almost drafted) to be ready. That could be as soon as next year. The Dodgers acquired Greg Colbrunn in a midseason trade with the DBacks and he has plated pretty well.. What the Dodgers have going for them is that everyone in the lineup hit .270+... everyone in the lineup can at least swing a bat. Against pitchers like Mark Prior however, I dont see this offense putting up runs.

The Expos on the otherhand have a pretty wicked lineup when compared to the Dodgers. 1-7 hitters = 89+ contact. Juan Rivera is a feared slugger in the league, and its nice to have Jason Phillips batting behind him, although he will miss Game 1 with a sore hamstring. Endy Chavez suprised everyone by nearly matching Jeff Duncan's fluke performance of '06 by hitting .320. Duncan, by the way, hit .258 with 8 HR and was benched by August. Victor Martinez hit .329 in the seven hole... this team is a pretty wicked offense.It's nice to know that ill be able to keep most of these guys for the years to come. Everyone except Chavez is signed through 2009.

Advantage: Expos

Defense:
Losing Beltre hurt the Dodgers defensively as well... Beltre averaged one play per game more than LaRocca and had a higher FieldPct. Nijel Dear is somewhat of a liability in left, and RF Jody Gerut is prone to error but has a great arm.. Joey Thurston is a terrible 2nd basemen, he fielded at a .966 clip. On the bright side, SS Juan Uribe is a gold glover with 100 range and a 97 arm. He makes up for what Joey Thurston lacks on defense somewhat.

For the Expos, C Victor Martinez was a great surprise offensively but took a step backward on defense. He made 9 errors and his assists per game dropped. He didnt allow a passed ball, though. Well, if he injured his knee why is he making bad throws? Maybe he cant get up as fast or has poor balance? 3B Zachary Wolcott is dependable at 3rd... SS Hinsdale has excellent range and a very good arm. My outfielders combined to make 59 assists... that could be a record.

Survey Says: Expos

G W L ERA SV Last First Pos MONvLAD Last First IP G W L ERA SV
33 19 8 2.81 0 Prior Mark Ace < Jennin. Jason 226 32 19 8 2.43 0
33 17 10 3.69 0 Leslie Alex SP2 > Perez Odalis 174.2 30 12 3 2.89 0
34 18 8 3.32 0 Rylanc. Tony SP3 << Ishii Kaz 135 25 6 8 4.2 0
28 13 4 4.66 0 Astaci. Pedro SP4 > Weaver Jeff 189 32 14 7 4.1 0

80 4 4 1.77 38 Kaussn Quentn Closr = Gagne Eric 89.2 84 4 5 2.51 32
85 9 2 3.6 1 Hoffma. Trevor Setup > Mota Guille. 111.1 93 12 3 2.1 2
46 2 2 4.38 1 Roney Matt Short >> Shuey Paul 90.1 77 7 4 2.69 3
58 4 5 5.03 2 Spurli. Chris Mid > Hawkins LaTroy 70.2 59 5 7 4.33 3
20 5 5 5.3 0 Howard Ben Long = Jackson Edwin 185 31 10 9 4.43 0

The Expos may have a slight edge in the starting pitching department, but it could go either way. The Dodgers saved Jason Jennings from Colorado in the offseason, he halved his ERA from the season before and is a Cy Young candidate. I dont doubt his success either, Jennings overall rating is an 89, and is a steal to for what he makes (5 year, 26M). The only real advantage I have is for Game 3 at home.. Ishii has poor control, my team likes to walk, and Rylance is probably the best #3 starter in the league. But if the game is close in the late innings... you have to favor the Dodgers. They have the best bullpen money can buy, bar none. They have three excellent relief pitchers, and a very good in LaTroy Hawkins. After Kaussen and Hoffman I have average relivers at best. Ty Kirn is not avaliable until Game 3... he had a bad season but becuase of his skill he will get a chance to pitch, at least at home. In any case, expect Hoffman and Kaussen to get alot of innings.

Advantage: Starters: Home team Bullpen: Dodgers

The Dodgers success was as a result of their excellent pitching. The Expos have the upperhand in this series, but dont count the Dodgers out, especially if they have a lead late.

GM24

07-21-2004, 12:38 AM

October 5-6, 2007
Dodger Stadium

Game 1: Mark Prior (19-8, 2.81) vs Jason Jennings (19-8, 2.43)

After sufficent hype, it's Game 1 of the divisonal series, a rematch of last year's NLCS, Dodgers vs. Expos. For what should be an entertaining pitching duel, new Expo Mark Prior will take on new Dodger Jason Jennings. the established ace versus the diamond in the rough.

The Expos loaded the bases with two out in the first inning with hot hitting Victor Martinez at the plate. We were in this situation so many times last year in the playoffs and we didnt come through. The Dodgers helped us on this one, an error was made to allow a run to score. And then 1B Corky Miller, who was filling in for Jason Phillips, hit a 2 RBI single. In the 1st inning the Expos batted around, and the score was 3-0.

A 3 run lead for Mark Prior usually spells game over, right? I would say so, but to be sure, the Expos loaded the bases again in the 6th and scored another three runs to give Prior 6 runs to work with. Prior tossed a 3 hit shutout on 129 pitches as the Expos cruised 6-0.

Game 2:
Alex Leslie (17-10, 3.69) vs. Odalis Perez (12-3, 2.89)

Odalis Perez, 28, has improved his ERA in each of the past five seasons. His season ended with a Game 4 loss to the Expos in the NLCS, a pivotal game that tied the series at 2-2. Perez is determined not to let his team down. Alex Leslie's only playoff experience was when he pitched 2 innings of relief against the Dodgers in the 6th and final game of that series, giving up a homerun to Joey Thurston but striking out 4. With Phillips back the lineup is in full strength. After Jack Nicholson threw out the first pitch, it was time to play ball.

Before an out was recorded, Endy Chavez hit a single and Jayson Werth hit a 2 run homerun to make it 2-0 Expos.

In the bottom frame, Joey Thurston led off agaisnt Alex Leslie. He would not greet Leslie with a homer this time, instead Leslie got the better of him and struck him out. Instead, Milton Bradley would hit a bomb to center, a solo shot. 2-1 Expos.

The Expos answered right back and led off the second with a Jose Vidro HR. 3-1 Expos.

In the bottom of the second, Juan Uribe hit a homerun with a runner on, and the game was tied at 3. A homerun has been hit in every frame!

No runs were scored until the top of the 6th, when Jason Phillips hit a solo homerun to give the Expos the advantage, 4-3! Welcome back Jason Phillips!

In the 7th, Trevor Hoffman came into the game, and some small ball was played for a change. Pinch hitter Bubba Crosby draws a walk, and Joey Thurston lays down a perfect sac bunt. Jason Kendall then struck out, but Milton Bradley came through with a clean base knock to score Bubba Crosby and tie the game.

The game would not stay tied for long. Guillermo Mota came in to releive the pitcher. Jayson Werth drew a leadoff walk, Wolcott hit into a fielder's choice but advanced the runner to second. So there's a similar situation here, leadoff walk runner on second, and now two out for Jason Phillips. Mota decides to intentionally walk Phillips to face Jose Vidro, who didnt have his usual .300 season last year... but he was 2-3 with a homer that game. Vidro doubled to score Wolcott and the Expos claimed the lead once again, 5-4. There were runners on 2nd and 3rd at that point, but Victor Martinez couldnt extend the lead. 5-4 Expos... and Matt Roney comes into the game

And Nijel Dear hits a solo homerun. Game is tied again. If Hoffman comes out, Quentin would have to come in in that situation. Doesnt matter if its a 2 inning save.. we have the day off tommorow. Roney finished out the inning... although I wouldve prefered he be taken out with a runner on 1st and 2 out in a tie game... but then the pitchers slot comes up in the next inning, and I wouldnt have been able pinch hit. So it was a good decision. The game is tied again.

The Expos couldnt get a run across in the 9th, Quentin Kaussen came in and allowed a hit and a walk but got out of a jam, and the game was going into extra innings. Eric Gagne would be jogged out for his second inning of relief.

In the bottom of the tenth, Nijel Dear hit a homerun in his 2nd straight at bat, and the Dodgers won 6-5 in extra innings. The team came back from behind [i]three/i] times to win this thing. A disheartening loss for the Expos, but they do return home with a 1-1 tie in the series, which gives them a good advantage to pull this off.

GM24

07-22-2004, 01:53 PM

October 8-9, 2007
Olympic Stadium
Dodgers at Expos, NLDS (Series tied 1-1)

Game 3: Kaz Ishii (6-8, 4.20) vs. Tony Rylance (18-8, 3.32)

Tony Rylance may have walked 60 batters in the regular season but he has pinpoint control... he allowed just 16 homeruns in 227.2 IP. Kaz Ishii, on the other hand... not known for his control. In every season prior to 2007 he has walked at least 100 batters.. he fared a bit better this season, walking 67 in 25 starts. But he does tend to fall behind in counts alot, and might struggle against a patient Expos offense.

After Joe Thurston struck out, the Dodgers reeled off four stragiht hits to score two runs... Rylance got himself out of a bases loaded jam by getting Juan Uribe to ground out, but very quickly the Expos find themselves in a 2-0 hole in a pivotal game.

The Expos made up that defecit quickly as Chavez drew a walk and Zach Wolcott hit a 2 run homerun to make this a new ballgame.

The Dodgers went on another hit parade in the 5th and scored two runs... the score is 4-2 and Tony Rylance has given up 11 hits... most of them singles.

The Expos answered back with two runs of their own... George Wernick pinch hit for Rylance and got his first major league hit, an infield single. Ty Kirn, who struggled all regular season, will be given the chance to redeem himself with the game tied in the 6th.

Kirn pitched a 1-2-3 6th and the Expos took the lead for the first time in the game on a Jamie Hinsdale ground out RBI.

Trevor Hoffman came into the game and allowed consecutive doubles, and then a homerun, and was then taken out. In the playoffs so far, Hoffman has given up almost as many earned runs (4) than he has since the all star break (5). To put it lightly, what's his deal? Matt Roney comes in to get the Expos out of it, but they are down by 2. They'll try and get those runs back off of tough reliever Guillermo Mota.

Dodgers won 10-5. My pitchers are coming out of games too late, it seems. I lowered pitch through trouble. Rylance just didnt have it tonight; 5 innings, 11 hits. But Trevor Hoffman blew this one for us... our bullpen blows a second straight game. Victor Martinez went 4 for 4 in the losing cause. Now with the series on the line, do you run out Mark Prior on three days rest?

Dodgers lead series, 2 games to 1.

Game 4: Jeff Weaver (14-7, 4.10) vs. Mark Prior (19-8, 2.81)

My answer is of course you do. I need Prior out there. This is an important game. Prior and Kaussen are the only two who will be pitching tonight. Even if Kaussen has to go three innings. I dont care. Maybe Kirn becuase he pitched well last night. But that's it. Jason Phillips got injured again, he has a sore tricep and will miss 5 days.

Courtesy of a Zach Wolcott error, the Dodgers got an extra out to work with, and Juan Uribe singled in a run. 1-0 Dodgers heading into the bottom of the second.

Maybe its my imagination but base runners have become alot more aggressive now that I grabbed the v7.10 patch. Alot of runners being thrown out for extra bases.

The next inning the Dodgers were able to score a runner in from 1st on a Jason Kendall double to make it 2-0. Mark Prior has given up 6 hits already. I'm concerned.

When Jamie Hinsdale drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the 3rd, Mark Prior made no attempt to bunt the runner over. UGH. Not that it wouldve mattered... Jayson Werth walked after that. And then Endy Chavez hit an infield single to load the bases with 1 out and the bases juiced, the heart of the coming up. This was HUGE. Zach Wolcott hit a sac fly to make the score 2-1, and that was all that came of that. Expos close the gap to 2-1 after 3.

Mark Prior, a very good hitting pitcher, helped out his own cause by doubling and scoring a run to tie the game! Later in the inning Juan Rivera hit an RBI single to give the Expos the lead! After 5 the Expos now lead 3-2.

The Dodgers tied the game 3-3 when Mark Prior walked in a run... oy vey. He might be running out of gas. He pitched 6 innings... lets get Kirn in there.

The Expos put... Matt Roney in the game. We might as well just throw the game away. After he gave up a hit I manually put Ty Kirn in there.

Ty Kirn pitched 1.2 great innings, but the score was still tied. Quentin Kaussen came in to pitch the ninth. With one out, Greg Colbrunn doubled down the right field line, scoring a run. With two out Elmo Farrar singled to make the score 5-3.

Down two the Expos have one last chance to win this game. Eric Gagne came in, and the top of the order was coming up. Werth struck out. Chavez singled to center. Tying run at the plate. Wolcott, who had 3 hits in the game, flied out to right. Juan Rivera struck out.

The Expos are eliminated in the Divisonal Series, three games to one. The Dodgers went on to beat the Mets in seven, to face the defending champion Rangers. The Texas Rangers beat the Dodgers in 5 games. Tony Armas Jr. pitched a complete game 2 hitter in the deciding game to win 1-0. Armas won 2 World Series games, and in my estimation, the World Series MVP.

Montreal will retain much of the same team for next season... Trevor Hoffman will probaly not be coming back, Pedro Astacio's contract was extended, be will a 5th starter for one more year, at $2.6M.

It came down to the bullpen. The Bullpen let us down for those three close games. That will be the focus in the offseason; improving this bullpen.

GM24

07-24-2004, 01:17 AM

October 30th 2007

SP Pedro Astacio signed 1 year, $2.6M extension

Astacio isnt the same pitcher he was when we acquired him from the Mets 2 years ago. Astacio was 13-4 with a 4.66 ERA. What concerns me is that Pedro averaged under 6 innings a start last season. Pedro has average skills and will be 37 in the 2008 season.

C Tim Laker released

Laker, 37, only managed 17 at bats last season. Laker doesnt really do anything well any more. He has no skills of 75 or better. I expect Laker to retire.

RP Trevor Hoffman's demands not met

As good as Hoffman is, I cant afford to give him 1 year $5.2M extension. Hoffman will be very hard to replace. With the Expos, Hoffman was 4-1 with a 1.08 ERA, striking out 49 in 43.1 IP. Hoffman is a fantastic power pitcher who gets good control on his pitches, and experience to boot. But when he pitches it looks as if his arm could fall off at any time. Hoffman is 39 years old.

Expos did not renew RP Chris Mears's contract

SP Chris Mears, 29, is an average relief pitcher who has the endurance to go 4 innings. Mears pitched just 14 innings with the Expos, compiling a 4.4 ERA.

Expos released RP Roy Cocoran

Cocoran is a deceptive pitcher who needs to further develop his control. He only appeared in 9 games in his second stint with the Expos, and had a 4.38 ERA. Cocoran is 26 and has some upside. Both Mears and Cocoran wanted $1 million a year deals.

2007 Addendum

NATIONAL LEAGUE (2007)

EAST W L PCT GB AVG HR SB ERA
New York 99 63 .611 -- .262 238 77 3.65
Montreal 99 63 .611 -- .283 166 69 3.93
Florida 84 78 .519 15.0 .261 147 98 3.87
Atlanta 80 82 .494 19.0 .255 180 67 4.22
Philadelphia 60 102 .370 39.0 .254 144 70 5.01

CENTRAL W L PCT GB AVG HR SB ERA
Pittsburgh 91 71 .562 -- .269 202 58 4.09
Chicago 83 79 .512 8.0 .245 216 75 3.98
St. Louis 81 81 .500 10.0 .263 148 180 4.08
Houston 78 84 .481 13.0 .256 175 68 4.68
Cincinnati 73 89 .451 18.0 .259 186 92 4.47
Milwaukee 64 98 .395 27.0 .258 173 95 5.09

WEST W L PCT GB AVG HR SB ERA
Los Angeles 103 59 .636 -- .270 158 89 3.42
Colorado 85 77 .525 18.0 .275 248 105 5.11
Arizona 73 89 .451 30.0 .274 154 78 4.99
San Francisco 73 89 .451 30.0 .259 116 113 3.78
San Diego 63 99 .389 40.0 .256 154 90 4.88

DIVISION PLAYOFFS
White Sox defeat Orioles, 3-2
Rangers defeat Yankees, 3-2
Dodgers defeat Expos, 3-1
Mets defeat Pirates, 3-2

LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Rangers defeat White Sox, 4-2
Dodgers defeat Mets, 4-3

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Rangers defeat Dodgers, 4-1
My teams fan loyalty went from a C+ to a.... B! Alright!

After winning the 2006 World Series, the Rangers went out and got free agents Adrian Beltre and Tony Armas Jr. They had great years, and the Rangers defended their crown by defeating the LA Dodgers in 5 games.

The Mets resigned all of their players, and turned a slight profit this season. They are looking to strengthen their bullpen, and this is a weak market for that. They might even turn to John Rocker, who is more of a thrower than a pitcher. They dont seem to be interested in Trevor Hoffman, however. His demands have dropped to $3.4M for one year... the Marlins only retained 7 pitchers from last season, and are in debt and unable to sign anyone in the frere agent market. They'll have to use the draft to find these players.

There arent a whole lot of major league ready players in this draft... there are maybe a handful. Which is about right. There is an awesome SP in the draft (86Ovr 94Pk) with the unfortunate name of Ichiro Takeshita. Ill be editing the name files...

Speaking of the draft, there is a 5 foot 3 pitcher in it. Pretty good too. Maybe he'll fall to me, due to his short stature.

The Braves could use a shortstop after Rafael Furcal bolted to free agency and will probably get a $100M contract from the Giants. They could also use... Trevor Hoffman. Hmmm... I think I should sign this guy.

The Phillies are pitiful right now. The have more holes than swiss cheese. Not even Trevor Hoffman could save them. He was there half of last season. They were in last.

AMERICAN LEAGUE (2007)

Cy Young Tony Armas Jr. (TEX)
Player of the Year: Alex Rodriguez (NYY)
Rookie Of The Year: Ian Roth (ANA)

NATIONAL LEAGUE (2007)

Cy Young Jason Schmidt (SFG)
Player of the Year: Juan Rivera (MON)
Rookie Of The Year: Jaime Hinsdale (MON)

Gold Glove (P): Mike Hampton (ATL)
Gold Glove (C): Damian Miller (ATL)
Gold Glove (1B): Mark Teixeira (NYM)
Gold Glove (2B): Luis Castillo (FLA)
Gold Glove (3B): Eric Chavez (HOU)
Gold Glove (SS): Jack Wilson (PIT)
Gold Glove (LF): Carl Crawford (COL)
Gold Glove (CF): Rocco Baldelli (PIT)
Gold Glove (RF): Jose Cruz Jr. (SFG)

JUAN RIVERA WON THE NL MVP! AND HE'S SIGNED FOR $2.8M THRU 2012!

Ahhh... well Juan Rivera beat out Lance Berkman to win the MVP award. Rivera hit .330 with 36 homeruns and a league leading 138 RBI in just 135 games.

And Hinsdale won the Rookie of the Year. Hinsdale is a "natural shortstop" who hit .266 with just 1 HR in 92 games. Think of him as a poor man's Ozzie Smith. Despite Hinsdale winning the ROY, this is a position I would consider upgrading. But with the lack of young talented shortstops and the premium price on them.... its unlikely. An all star shortstop is a commodity I cant afford.

Tony Armas Jr. won the AL Cy Young. Armas was 19-3 with a 3.2 ERA... why couldnt he pitch like that with me?

Free Agent Market:

SS Rafael Furcal seeking $14.1M for 7 years (Giants are close)

Furcal, 29, is at his peak and looking for the big bucks. The shortstop had somewhat off an off year offensively, hitting .274 with 18 homeruns. He had hit .290 or better the previous four seasons. Furcal has outstanding range and a strong arm, and he improved his fielding percentage from awful to average.

LF/DH Barry Bonds seeking $13.8M for 2 years (Bonds and A's close to agreement)

It looks like Barry Bonds, 42 and still going strong, will finish his illustrious career with the Atheltics. Last season with the A's he hit .297 with 57 homeruns. When Bonds signed with the A's initally two seasons ago, the market shift in the bay area was tremendous. Bonds has 817 career homeruns. 900 is not out of the realm of possibilty.

RF Laynce Nix seeking $13.6M for 6 years (Texas will resign)

Laynce Nix is a phenomenal offensive force and was a huge part of the champion Texas Rangers. It was wise for the Rangers to resign Nix... he was a real pain for the Expos in the World Series, and last season he hit .323 with 41 HR, 153 RBI and 10 SB. Nix's only weakness is that he misjudges too many flyballs-- he had 13 errors in right.

SP Matt Clement seeking $13.5M for 5 years (Red Sox to sign)

Clement throws alot of junk but throws it hard and can be very tough to hit as a result. Clement had a career year with the Cubs last season, going 17-6 with a 2.73 ERA. The Red Sox, winners of 88 games last season, could sure use some pitching help, but are they overpaying?

SP Mark Buerhle seeking $11.6M for 6 years (KC to sign)

The Royals dont have one decent SP, so this is a good move for them, and they are singing him away from teh divison rival White Sox. Buerhle won 21 games for the Sox, and has not posted an ERA above 3.5 the past three years. Buerhle throws a nasty curveball and throws it for strikes. The Royals havent had such a dominant ace since David Cone and maybe Kevin Appier.

SP Kerry Wood seeking $9.4M for 6 years (Pirates are close)

It looks like the Cubs have lost three of their dominant pitchers from when they won their divison 2 years ago. Wood is a fireballer and was healthy all year last season, making a career high 34 starts. Kerry is 29, and has been remarkably consistent. He has had an ERA in the 3s for 7 consectutive seasons

SP Roy Oswalt seeking $9.7M for 6 years (Cubs)

Oswalt is one of the most complete starting pitchers in the game, and like Wood he has never had an ERA of 4 or higher. Oswalt has pinpoint control and doesnt give up many longballs. Oswalt is 29 and in great shape... I would sign him if he were younger... even if eh were I dont think I can have two $10M dollar pitchers

Someone I'm keeping an eye out is Mark Mulder. He's a workhorse, a guy thatll be out there every start and can carry through the seventh inning every time. However he struggled last year, posting an un-Mulder-like 4.31 ERA. However his WHIP numbers are very good. He is asking for $7.7M per for 6 years... which is reasonable. He also has a skill set that is better than Buerhle's IMO.

If I were to get him, I would trade Eric Milton, whose contract expires after the season. I'd try to trade him for young phenom Ichiro Takeshita. If I did that though, I would almost certainly change the poor guy's name... :rolleyes:

Trevor Hoffman and Billy Wagner seem to be the only good relief pitcher on the market... Wagner is no longer the guy that my scouts rated 101 back in 2004... he's an 80 now and hasnt really been his dominant self. I think that Hoffman can have another great season though. OK so Ill sign Mulder and Hoffman and trade Milton. I think...

GM24

07-24-2004, 05:20 PM

November 10th 2007

Expos sign SP Mark Mulder to 6 year, $46.2M deal ($7.7M a year)

Montreal and RP Trevor Hoffman agree on 1 year, $3.4M deal

Mark Mulder, 29, is one of the best talents in the league... its surprising that he gave up as many runs as he did with that nasty stuff he throws. Last season with a disapointing A's team, Mulder was 14-14 with a 4.31 ERA. However, Mulder did give up less hits than innings pitched, and has good control. I think that Mulder will re-establish himself as an all-star pitcher. He will strengthen a rotation that includes Mark Prior, Alex Leslie, and Tony Rylance.

Trevor Hoffman pitched excellently for the Expos after coming over in a deadline deal (for the second straight year). Hoffman had a 1.04 ERA with the Expos in 43 innings, but pitched disapointingly in the playoffs. But Hoffman can still bring it, just on a limited basis. Becuase of his age (39) and health (59), his innings will need to be limited. He will share 8th inning duties with Ty Kirn.

Well, looking at my roster, I could use 2 utility IF and a pinch runner.

December 15th 2007

Expos sign OF Kerry Robinson at $490K for 2 years

Robinson, 30, will be used as a pinch runner mainly with his 90 speed, but he can also leg out a base hit on a regular basis. Kerry has spent the last three years on the San Diego bench.

December 22th 2007

Expos sign 2B Aaron Miles at $380K for 2 years

The signing of Miles will allow Mark Drake more time in the minors to refine his skills. Aaron, also 30, can also run. Aaron hit .324 in AAA last season. Miles has no real strengths other than speed, but no weaknesses either. If called upon to play, Miles will make a nice contribution

I suppose the minor league draft will be next... that and my pursuit of Ichiro Takeshita, who will likely end up with the 48-114 Blue Jays.

GM24

07-26-2004, 12:33 PM

2008 Minor League Draft

It looks like I wont be getting SP Ichiro Takeshita... i havent even come close in negotiations to landing him. Takeshita is simply amazing. He has outstanding control and power, and average movement thatl will improve. He had a sub 3 ERA in his 2 years in AA. To get Takeshita I would prbably have to trade CF George Wernick, the number 1 pick of last years draft who I acquired from the Phillies. So long as my incmubent CF, Endy Chavez, is asking for a 6 year, $64M extension, that wont happen.

Anyway, the draft. I was looking for young relief pitchers. I also need a #5 starter for next season, but that will probably wait.

Round 1, Pick 24: Expos select RP Ben Marseilles (69/77)

At 18, Marseilles was one of the youngest players in the draft. Despite being 18 he was able to hold his own in AA by walking just 15 and striking out 46 in 66 innings pitched. Marseilles has excellent command of the strike zone. He doesnt have the stuff to get big league hitters out yet though. Ben is a bit of a project but should be a very good relief pitcher.

Round 2, Pick 54: Expos select RP Don Timbrell (59/75)

Don Timbrell, 23, is a much bigger risk than Ben Marseilles. Timbrell can throw gas and has satisfactory control, but relies too much on his fastball. He'll need to develop an effective breaking pitch before he gets to the majors.

Round 3, Pick 84: Expos select SS Rob Grove (51/75)

At this point its hard to imagine what Grove might become. But he is a shortstop and has shown some flashes of brilliance, so he's worth the risk.

Round 4, Pick 114: Expos select CF James Carr (61/69)

When you watch this 23 year old in action, one thing is apparent: he has a cannon of an arm. He also has two glaring weaknesses, he cant hit and he cant catch. Carr is a free swinger, he managed just 5 walks in 150ABs last year. That's hard to do... although he did strike out just 18 times. I dont know if Carr will ever be a major league ballplayer, but he may be a valuable asset if he works hard.

Round 5, Pick 144: Expos select 3B Adolfo Mauri (51/71)

3B Adolfo Mauri doesnt look like anything special now, but his potential is intriguing. Mauri could contribute on the major league level with his glove, whether he amounts to anything more is beyond me.

Round 6, Pick 174: Expos select RP Esteban Corral (51/67)

Corral is about as bad as they come right now. Even at his peak potential he wont find his way into a respectable bullpen. Corral will probably be released or traded for another 6th round pick.

Well, I'm still in the market for a future #5 starter. I'm looking to trade SP Eric Milton and RP Chris Spurling to get one. I'm not sure why I gave Spurling that $1M thru 2009 contract.

GM24

07-28-2004, 02:18 PM

JANUARY 24, 2008
Angels receive Chris Spurling (RP), Eric Milton (SP), Jose Cepeda (RF), Matt Roney (SP), Don Timbrell (RP) and Galeno Indelicato (1B)
Expos receive Miguel Henriques (SP) and Enrico Carrión (2B)
Angels receive $2 million

The Expos give up alot for a talented young starter in Miguel Henriquez.

Henriquez, 25, has a bright future ahead of him. The 23rd pick of last years draft, Miguel has exceeded expectations. He posesses excellent control and very good movement on his pitches. He earned a spot in the rotation in August, and in 11 starts was 4-3 with a 4.02 ERA. Henriquez still has some upside, and next season he will be part of perhaps the best 5 man rotation ever.

The Expos also get 2B Enrico Carrion. Carrion is 20 and was signed as a minor league free agent last season. He has demonstrated enough talent that scouts feel he may make the majors someday. Enrico is young and could be a useful utility man someday.

The Angels receive alot of talent that could help them win now. SP Eric Milton and RP Eric Spurling will figure prominently for a team that finished 2nd in the Wild Card race last season.

SP Eric Milton spent four years as a starting pitcher for the Expos, in which time he was 44-39 with a 4.07 ERA. He also won 2 playoff games in the Expos's 2006 miracle season. Milton, 31, is very skilled and has similar ratings to Miguel Henriquez. But he is 31, and his contract expires next season.

RP Chris Spurling, served as a example of why not to spend money on non closers. Spurling is now in the second year of a 3 year, 3 million dollar deal. He was 4-5 with a 5.03 ERA, and was only being used in losing causes by the end of the season. Spurling, now 29, experienced a skills drop and now can noly be considered as above average. But the Angels will use him in their short role.

SP Matt Roney was a player I didnt really want to give up. Roney started the year in long relief and pitched well enough to pitch in short situations. Roney exceeded expectations by earning a 4.38 ERA in 74 innings. The 27 year old probably isnt suited for such duty on a playoff contender. Roney has 3 points of upside left and will open the year in AAA for the Angels.

RF Jose Cepeda, 24, could be a starter someday, but his lack of range made him expendable. Jose was seleceted in the 2nd round of the 2007 draft by the Expos. He has made strides in AAA and improved his stock. He already has an excellent eye (walked more times than struck out!) and is working on developing good contact skills. Cepeda is fairly mobile, he has above average speed and stole 11 bases in the minors. I dont doubt that Cepeda will be a good hitter, but he will likely be a DH.

RP Don Timbrell, 23, was the 2nd round pick by the Expos a week ago. He has a long way to go but his peak improved 2 points after being traded. I wrote: Timbrell can throw gas and has satisfactory control, but relies too much on his fastball. He'll need to develop an effective breaking pitch before he gets to the majors.

1B Galeno Indelicato, 20, struggled in AAA last season, hitting just .236. But he improved his stock just enough that he is projected to be a future starter (Peak:82). Indelicato will be an above average fielder and will learn how to hit, but I cant imagine that he will put up the kind of offensive numbers you want from a 1B.

The Expos also give up 2 million dollars, leaving them with 31 million. The Angels have 37 million in reserve.

I give up alot in this deal, but no one player is really groundbreaking. The Angels get a #3 starter for one year, a short releiver for 2, a future DH and a future 1B that they dont need becuase Mike Sweeney (OVR 90) is signed through 2012. And I get a starter who will play three years for me... before I trade him too. Ha.

Now that I have nothing else to trade, Opening Day rosters will probably be next.