Blowing in the Wind 2054.5: Jacksonville Stumbling, Trades Orlando Lopez

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Blowing in the Wind 2054.5: Jacksonville Stumbling, Trades Orlando Lopez

Post by aaronweiner » Sat Apr 08, 2023 8:28 pm

The Jacksonville Hurricanes held in the playoff race until around June - and then the wheels came off. The Hurricanes were a combined 20-34 in June and July, and a season in which they looked like they might match last year's 83 wins has instead seen the Hurricanes on a 90-loss pace.

"We're working to avoid the cellar, but the cellar seems to be finding us," said Jacksonville manager Khayyat bin Luqman, who got his first winning record last season. "We have good players but we're just not getting the job done."

The Hurricanes signaled that they might be moving even further towards the bottom of the league by moving starting shortstop Orlando Lopez to the Nashville Bluebirds for a pair of prospects. Lopez was signed to a one-year make-good deal with the team, and he's done his part, hitting around league average at the position, which made him attractive to a playoff hopeful like Nashville.

"Baseball is a business, and I knew that almost anything could have happened this year," said Lopez. "To go to a team with a chance at the playoffs is all I could ask for."

For their part, Jacksonville has kept no secrets about the fact that they have tried to keep their $80 million in cap space open for next season, which has hamstrung the team somewhat in moves. However, the result might be the team's first 90 loss season since the 2043 season; in fact, the franchise has been at 90 losses just twice in the last twenty-seven years.

"We don't intend to be down for long, but if we get knocked down to 90 losses this year it's okay," said Jacksonville GM Aaron Weiner, in his first year with the team. "The farm system was just blasted when we got here, and there weren't a lot of long-term contracts on the books, so we actually think we're doing pretty good this year for what was supposed to be a reboot."

A lot of the team's success has been because of players like Lopez, Jonathon O'Reilly, and Mark Thomas, all offseason imports, and not the veterans that were on the team when they arrived: long-term vets like Sawyer Slizz, Norihisa Yokoyama, and Jude Stephens have all been highly marginal. This gives the fans some hope that the new team in the front office might have what it takes to get the team back into the playoffs.

"We've seen some solid stuff from the team this year," said long-time Jacksonville superfan Bogais W. Amp. "We're looking forward to seeing what they're going to spend all that money on."

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Re: Blowing in the Wind 2054.5: Jacksonville Stumbling, Trades Orlando Lopez

Post by Dington » Sat Apr 08, 2023 9:33 pm

I like the trade for you. Not sure I’ll miss the players I gave up, but should have a place in Jacksonville. I needed a utility infielder off the bench and he should fit that role nicely this season.
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Re: Blowing in the Wind 2054.5: Jacksonville Stumbling, Trades Orlando Lopez

Post by aaronweiner » Sun Apr 09, 2023 12:55 pm

There's a chance that one of the guys plays for me next year as my platoon DH, depending on how free agency goes, and the other guy is an interesting project, and it's a lot better than what I had.

The farm's really been upgraded since I got here - just not all that much in a global sense. Long way to go still.

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