C-Notes 2045.01 - And So It Begins...

[GoldenOne]

Well, last offseason we saw the Charlotte Cougars try a different tact in their execution of The Plan®. GM Golden decided to forego defense and try platooning guys in the hopes of generating more offense. It didnt take too long before Golden saw that that was just not working. Well, the platooning and generating more offense didnt work; the foregoing of defense worked out quite well.

In the first half of the season, Charlotte's pitching carried the day. Great at home, terrible on the road. Still, it was good enough to keep their stats in the top half of the JL for a while. The offense - pretty much terrible all the time. The boys were good at taking walks and then stealing that extra base but when you dont have anyone that can hit the ball and drive in that guy on 2nd it doesnt really matter. It was around June when GM Golden decided that he was going to right the ship and stick to the original The Plan®. Long story made short - if you followed along last season, you know that GM Golden had 45 different players don a Cougars uniform last season, and it wasnt even close to being due to injuries. 25 batters and 20 pitchers. Somehow though, the Cougars managed to win 71 games - their first non-100 loss season in the team's 5-year existence.

Season 6 of the Cougars looks to be something close to The Plan® that GM Golden has been talking about since he came into the league in the 2034 season. Also, unlike last offseason, the Cougars decided to mostly shy away from Free Agency, spending only on a part time catcher (John Hale; 2 years, $4M with second year a Team Option year at $1.5M), a Relief Pitcher (Sean Spits; 1 year, $2.25M), and a couple of bench/back-up pieces (Hakim Ngowa; 3 years , $4.3M with 3rd year a Team Option and Curt Love; 3 years at $7.3M with last two years being Team Options.) No, this season, well, since last June actually, Golden has gone back to his trading roots to get the players he wants.

Has he done it? Well, the early season predictions have the Cougars winning 85 games this season. Now, these early season predictions tend to be a bit off-the-wall, shall we say. These are the same predictions that have star Stopper Keijo 'Coach' Reini pitching in more games than the Cougars are predicted to win (92) and striking out guys at a rate of 17.73 Ks/9 for a total of 356 Ks. (Admittedly, Reini crazy 15-rated Stuff has gone up to a catoonish-like 18-rated Stuff this offseason so who knows what will happen.) The defense is markedly better than last season, in both the infield and outfield. And there are very few predicted platoon spots, other than maybe 1B and at DH at this point.

Is The Plan® finally coming together? We're excited for the season to start and to find out, that's for sure.