Off Topic
The Quest For Organizational Excellence?
I’ve made it no secret that a very large percentage of my time in playing this OOTP thing is focused on my minor leagues. I don’t really gameplay at these levels—meaning I rarely go set a gazillion strategies and focus on individual games and opponents like I will at the big league level, but I am highly focused on getting players time on the field, and moving them into positions to be successful. I also focus on coaches, though I’ll admit I’ve been considerably MORE focused on them in the recent past than I used to be.
My goal, you see, is to win at every level. A lot of people think that’s mostly about keeping morale up. Good morale, good development. I suppose that’s not too far off, but it’s not really why I’m doing it. I’m doing it because in order to win at every level (with age appropriate players), you have to be focused on getting better players. All the time. And better age appropriate players develop better than worse age appropriate players. Better development, better organizations.
It's a theory, anyway.
In that sense, one of the things I wanted to track for my entry into the Seattle/Bikini organization was simply how many games the team won as an overall group. To put it mildly, when I took over, the environment was crammed full of losing. I wanted to turn that around. The first stage was moderately easy last year. Simply get rid of horrible players, and replace them with guys who weren’t horrible. This year was a little more of a challenge, then. Still, I spend a lot of time finding more guys to fill more roles. For awhile, it seemed like I was signing two and four minor league guys every sim. Some were, of course, mega-popular old guys for AAA, but in reality most were A and AA level players who could come in and do something.
Let’s see how it’s been working.
RESULTS
Looks good. We grew 48 games last year, and another 42 this year. That’s while losing ground at Rookie ball--something I attribute to a combination of promoting a few IC players and drafting several high schoolers. Players who are 16 and 17 years old are still going to be at a disadvantage against a league often filled with 19-21 year olds.
Regardless, AA Kamloops has gone to the post season both years, so that’s good. Beyond that, every team has grown to the point where, next year, if I can manage to keep the process going, each level might actually compete for a post-season gig.
So, yay us!
Of course, the main purpose of a minor league structure is to yield players to the bigs. I’m not blind to that. So, here’s our status as of now.
PROSPECTS
As is to be expected, with the parent club being now populated with scads of guys on their rookie contracts, the Bikini Krill’s minor leagues are a bit of a barren mess when it comes to true prospects—at least in the upper levels. Starting Pitcher Mahmut Binark is still the most enticing prospect at the AAA level, and he had his September call-up and pitched fairly well despite ratings that would still make a handicapper weep. The club promoted 21-year-okd OFs Roberto Pina in AAA and Marty Barnett to AA late in the year. Both are intriguing, but neither make your eyes go pop. Two-way catcher/pitcher Bob Gentle, at 22, had an interesting follow-up year in AA, but is also not a guy teams would plan greatness around.
As said, this was in the plan from the beginning of my takeover, though. I’ve said before that Seattle had good depth in solid, but not great prospects. Many of these guys are going to be solid 2-4 WAR guys, but none are dropping 6+ anytime soon. We’re going to ride them as far as we can. Worst case, they should have us at least playing winning baseball while their cheap contracts put us firmly onto solid financial ground. Best case is that these guys start getting us to the post season and skyrocket our finances quickly.
Time will tell.
If you want to see “serious” prospects—you know, guys who might actually possibly kind of be superstars—you have to look farther down the chain into the riskier parts of the organization where the likes of OF Stephen Schmidt, CF Fernando Bushey, and 3B Benji Amberman toil away. Throw 1B Burt Nesmith, 2B/SS Mitchell Cook, and 1B Ares Xanthos in there if you want to be generous. While (like most every team) there exist several other guys who could bump up, these six—along with whoever the club drafts next June and any other acquisitions along the way—will comprise the core of the team’s next wave. Assuming they don’t crash and burn, anyway.
One might note the dearth of pitching in that list.
Regardless, the 2058 update is that for the most part all of these guys grew in some way or another. Let’s look at them quickly.
Fernando Bushey: Had a very good year in SA (12 homers, .287/.352/.472, 1.9 WAR), and a nice week when promoted to A ball at the end. Perhaps the most exciting growth was a point of outfield range that the kid got mid-season. That power will play no matter what, but the “9” range makes him a bona fide center field candidate, and that vastly increases his value. Expect him in A>AA next year, and since he was drafted at age 20, if he gets solid results, there’s a non-zero chance he could arrive in Bikini in 2060.
Stephen Schmidt: I was totally ecstatic to see him burst out this season. I matched him with a coach that I think was better for him, then just set him alone in SA for the season, whereupon he did 2.2 WAR, .303/374/.516 slash with 12 homers in 64 games. Good growth came along. He’s got a long way still to go, and at 21 the clock is gently ticking. But I’m hoping a full season in A-ball will see him on the right path.
Mitchell Cook: Cook started in Rookie ball, but had such a hot start the team promoted him to SA right away. He blossomed there, dropping a .321/.366/.363 slash and growing both as a shortstop and a second baseman. One suspects his profile says he’ll have to move to 2B in the bigs, but that’s a question for another time. We saw growth in his ratings, which is good, too. Another guy who has a very long way to go, so the jury is out. But 2058 saw good progress. Unless more growth happens in the off-season, I wouldn’t be surprising to see him start at SA again.
Benji Amberman: Statistically, Amberman had a much better year than their debut of 2057. The .279/.341/.411 slash wasn’t stellar, but was solid enough to net 1.1 WAR in 62 games. Given that Benji was 16 when drafted, we suppose that’s not too surprising. The good news here is that along the way Amberman got a 1-point Power bump to register up to a “3.” Whatever. Amberman’s true value in in contact and plate discipline, and in those areas 2058 was a mixed bag. Statistical progress, but nothing in visible ratings growth. It leaves the team pondering an assignment back to Rookie ball to start 2059. We’ll see. Amberman’s still very young, so still very risky.
Burt Nesmith: At 6’9” Nesmith is an interesting power hitter at first base. If he ever learns to take a walk, he might be a true superstar. Or now. He had a nice year for a 17 year old kid, though. Nice enough, anyway. 8 homers and 24 doubles. .247.298/.474. Not eye-grabbing, but again he’s 17. Assuming his ratings hold or grow, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him in Short-A Port au Prince next year.
Ares Xanthos: Xanthos is, admittedly, a piece of work. We pushed his work ethic a little last off-season. It didn't really help. At 21 he failed at A-ball, but had a nice result in Short A (.295/.425/.473). He did drop a point of contact, though, which is distressing. I currently consider him the least likely of the six to yield at the end, but the combination of good Power and exceptional Eye means he's still a serious prospect.
Summary
Everyone would love to have a gazillion prospects bumping every day, but we can’t all be Nashville. That said, I generally like where the team’s organization is headed right now. We’re getting more players of fair-to-good quality, and the guys I hope might be major impacts are generally progressing. I’m expecting most are three years off, which actually seems to fit our need profile (most of our good young guys now will be getting pricey by then, so we’ll need cheap contributors to follow up.
Fingers crossed on development.
In that light, the next review post will likely be about or coaching staff, which I’ve been working hard to improve along the way. The whole goal is to get decent players and expose them to enough playing time and enough good coaching that they keep winning.
Right?
Bottom line: 2058 seems like it was a pretty good season all the way down the chain.
I’ve made it no secret that a very large percentage of my time in playing this OOTP thing is focused on my minor leagues. I don’t really gameplay at these levels—meaning I rarely go set a gazillion strategies and focus on individual games and opponents like I will at the big league level, but I am highly focused on getting players time on the field, and moving them into positions to be successful. I also focus on coaches, though I’ll admit I’ve been considerably MORE focused on them in the recent past than I used to be.
My goal, you see, is to win at every level. A lot of people think that’s mostly about keeping morale up. Good morale, good development. I suppose that’s not too far off, but it’s not really why I’m doing it. I’m doing it because in order to win at every level (with age appropriate players), you have to be focused on getting better players. All the time. And better age appropriate players develop better than worse age appropriate players. Better development, better organizations.
It's a theory, anyway.
In that sense, one of the things I wanted to track for my entry into the Seattle/Bikini organization was simply how many games the team won as an overall group. To put it mildly, when I took over, the environment was crammed full of losing. I wanted to turn that around. The first stage was moderately easy last year. Simply get rid of horrible players, and replace them with guys who weren’t horrible. This year was a little more of a challenge, then. Still, I spend a lot of time finding more guys to fill more roles. For awhile, it seemed like I was signing two and four minor league guys every sim. Some were, of course, mega-popular old guys for AAA, but in reality most were A and AA level players who could come in and do something.
Let’s see how it’s been working.
RESULTS
| Team | Level | 2056 | 2057 | 2058 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bikini (Seattle) | BBA | 55 | 61 | 78 |
| Pasco | AAA | 57 | 68 | 76 |
| Kamloops | AA | 60 | 74 | 81 |
| Lake City | A | 41 | 52 | 62 |
| Port au Prince | SSA | 26 | 32 | 35 |
| Ogden | R | 26 | 26 | 23 |
| 265 | 313 | 355 |
Regardless, AA Kamloops has gone to the post season both years, so that’s good. Beyond that, every team has grown to the point where, next year, if I can manage to keep the process going, each level might actually compete for a post-season gig.
So, yay us!
Of course, the main purpose of a minor league structure is to yield players to the bigs. I’m not blind to that. So, here’s our status as of now.
PROSPECTS
As is to be expected, with the parent club being now populated with scads of guys on their rookie contracts, the Bikini Krill’s minor leagues are a bit of a barren mess when it comes to true prospects—at least in the upper levels. Starting Pitcher Mahmut Binark is still the most enticing prospect at the AAA level, and he had his September call-up and pitched fairly well despite ratings that would still make a handicapper weep. The club promoted 21-year-okd OFs Roberto Pina in AAA and Marty Barnett to AA late in the year. Both are intriguing, but neither make your eyes go pop. Two-way catcher/pitcher Bob Gentle, at 22, had an interesting follow-up year in AA, but is also not a guy teams would plan greatness around.
As said, this was in the plan from the beginning of my takeover, though. I’ve said before that Seattle had good depth in solid, but not great prospects. Many of these guys are going to be solid 2-4 WAR guys, but none are dropping 6+ anytime soon. We’re going to ride them as far as we can. Worst case, they should have us at least playing winning baseball while their cheap contracts put us firmly onto solid financial ground. Best case is that these guys start getting us to the post season and skyrocket our finances quickly.
Time will tell.
If you want to see “serious” prospects—you know, guys who might actually possibly kind of be superstars—you have to look farther down the chain into the riskier parts of the organization where the likes of OF Stephen Schmidt, CF Fernando Bushey, and 3B Benji Amberman toil away. Throw 1B Burt Nesmith, 2B/SS Mitchell Cook, and 1B Ares Xanthos in there if you want to be generous. While (like most every team) there exist several other guys who could bump up, these six—along with whoever the club drafts next June and any other acquisitions along the way—will comprise the core of the team’s next wave. Assuming they don’t crash and burn, anyway.
One might note the dearth of pitching in that list.
Regardless, the 2058 update is that for the most part all of these guys grew in some way or another. Let’s look at them quickly.
Fernando Bushey: Had a very good year in SA (12 homers, .287/.352/.472, 1.9 WAR), and a nice week when promoted to A ball at the end. Perhaps the most exciting growth was a point of outfield range that the kid got mid-season. That power will play no matter what, but the “9” range makes him a bona fide center field candidate, and that vastly increases his value. Expect him in A>AA next year, and since he was drafted at age 20, if he gets solid results, there’s a non-zero chance he could arrive in Bikini in 2060.
Stephen Schmidt: I was totally ecstatic to see him burst out this season. I matched him with a coach that I think was better for him, then just set him alone in SA for the season, whereupon he did 2.2 WAR, .303/374/.516 slash with 12 homers in 64 games. Good growth came along. He’s got a long way still to go, and at 21 the clock is gently ticking. But I’m hoping a full season in A-ball will see him on the right path.
Mitchell Cook: Cook started in Rookie ball, but had such a hot start the team promoted him to SA right away. He blossomed there, dropping a .321/.366/.363 slash and growing both as a shortstop and a second baseman. One suspects his profile says he’ll have to move to 2B in the bigs, but that’s a question for another time. We saw growth in his ratings, which is good, too. Another guy who has a very long way to go, so the jury is out. But 2058 saw good progress. Unless more growth happens in the off-season, I wouldn’t be surprising to see him start at SA again.
Benji Amberman: Statistically, Amberman had a much better year than their debut of 2057. The .279/.341/.411 slash wasn’t stellar, but was solid enough to net 1.1 WAR in 62 games. Given that Benji was 16 when drafted, we suppose that’s not too surprising. The good news here is that along the way Amberman got a 1-point Power bump to register up to a “3.” Whatever. Amberman’s true value in in contact and plate discipline, and in those areas 2058 was a mixed bag. Statistical progress, but nothing in visible ratings growth. It leaves the team pondering an assignment back to Rookie ball to start 2059. We’ll see. Amberman’s still very young, so still very risky.
Burt Nesmith: At 6’9” Nesmith is an interesting power hitter at first base. If he ever learns to take a walk, he might be a true superstar. Or now. He had a nice year for a 17 year old kid, though. Nice enough, anyway. 8 homers and 24 doubles. .247.298/.474. Not eye-grabbing, but again he’s 17. Assuming his ratings hold or grow, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him in Short-A Port au Prince next year.
Ares Xanthos: Xanthos is, admittedly, a piece of work. We pushed his work ethic a little last off-season. It didn't really help. At 21 he failed at A-ball, but had a nice result in Short A (.295/.425/.473). He did drop a point of contact, though, which is distressing. I currently consider him the least likely of the six to yield at the end, but the combination of good Power and exceptional Eye means he's still a serious prospect.
Summary
Everyone would love to have a gazillion prospects bumping every day, but we can’t all be Nashville. That said, I generally like where the team’s organization is headed right now. We’re getting more players of fair-to-good quality, and the guys I hope might be major impacts are generally progressing. I’m expecting most are three years off, which actually seems to fit our need profile (most of our good young guys now will be getting pricey by then, so we’ll need cheap contributors to follow up.
Fingers crossed on development.
In that light, the next review post will likely be about or coaching staff, which I’ve been working hard to improve along the way. The whole goal is to get decent players and expose them to enough playing time and enough good coaching that they keep winning.
Right?
Bottom line: 2058 seems like it was a pretty good season all the way down the chain.
