Monarchs First Half

[SteveM-A2]

This once proud franchise that boasted 18 winning seasons in a row until last year is virtually guaranteed a second losing season. Today we take an accountants view of the Monarchs and define the Assets and Liabilities.

Assets
$.
The team has a very low budget. Money to resign players. Money for Free Agents. And on track for a profitable 2015. In other words, the team is in the black. Accountants like being in the black.

David Malave
Just 24 years old he is a five tool player and locked in the third spot in the order. .318/.359/.471 convince the accountants that this player belongs on the asset page. Maybe even the cover of the report. He runs the bases with proficiency and is touted as a 'smart base runner.' He brings leadership to the dugout but the accountants don't actually count that because they can't agree on how to list it on the page. But, for the rest of us….

Lucio Vazquez, 1B

OK, can we just call him our 'beast'? 34 HR's last year, 15 HR's this year, .375 OBP last year, .375 OBP this year, SLG. .502 last year, SLG. .477 this year. The Bean counters love Lucio because they think he puts fans in the seats with all the home runs. A loyalist to the team the Accountants actually recognize that because they think it will save them some money when Free Agency (Accountants hate those words) arrives for Lucio.

Raven Rider, SS

His agent insisted on a major league contract which the Accountants strongly recommended not doing. They said it would lead to chaos and anarchy. But once ownership inked the deal they quickly put Rider's name under the Asset column because of his strong defensive skills and ability to make contact with the ball. With the projection that Raven will be playing at the top level in less than a year the Accountants have calculated that there will be a rise in attendance that will more than off set the salary. The hard working short stop owns a .681 OPS in AAA but has made only 1 error.

Omar Sosa, P

This twenty year old pitcher keeps gaining velocity on his pitches and now he is showing ability to cut his fastball giving him more movement. Batters are hitting .286 vs. Omar but the Accounting Dept. thinks that will go down as he matures. One of the scouts pointed out that actually in that ball park the .286 translates to a little higher average but no one in the room seemed to hear him and the subject was quickly changed to how much to charge for a beer.

Jim Wilson, DH

The Bean counters couldn't agree on this one because on one hand Wilson has a decent .759 OPS it pales to his career .911 OPS. He still has home run power (11) but he is slow. He still has a decent average (.266) but he can't play a position anymore. He is paid a whopping +15M this year and for 2 more years but the team has options the final two years with a $0 buyout. After much discussion they decided to do a depreciation line entry for Wilson that limit the financial impact beyond this year. Translation: Don't bring him back.

Liabilities

The Minor League System

When you are ranked 20 out of 24 even the Accountants can't make this look good. They tried using arguments that OSA is outdated and inaccurate in their methodology but in good conscious they can't really sell that to many baseball people. The minor league teams are losing more than they are winning so there is no way to spin the stats, here.


Pitching
The Monarchs Starting Pitchers rank 12 out of….well, 12. But, the Accountants quickly pointed out that the Relief Pitching is ranked 11 out of 12. After a brief discussion it was determined to list Pitching as an aggregate on the Liability Page.

The Accountants are recommending that the team make more trades that involve veteran players for younger ones that have much lower salaries. They were pleased in the Price/Adams deal as it saved the team over a million dollars for 3 straight years. Some of the league GM's thought the Price was 'reduced' but the Accountants asked ownership to ignore the comments as it was clear the bottom line had improved.

They also approved of the Trickle III/Lewis deal that netted over $5M savings. Plus, they were quick to point out, commands 3 pitches which is much more valuable than….say a 2 pitch pitcher.

Next report will be done from the perspective of someone different. The Accountants argued that this is 'their report' but in this case ownership over ruled them.