2008 Louisville Sluggers hot corner

[trmmilwwi]

2007 Review
What went right?
The league brought in stable leadership to the Louisville franchise when GM felipe was announced as the new franchise GM on June 10, 2007. Previous GM Salas had taken opportunities elsewhere and felipe knew he was in for a struggle. The first words during his first press conference were "These guys fuckin suck...err...I mean, we...we suck....but mostly....them." Felipe then proceeded to throw previous management under the bus by proclaiming "The answer was Ben Teague...I don't like to call anyone stupid...then I realised who the really stupid one was (besides the guy who took this job)...I saw who Teague fleeced in a deal in 2006 for this walking abortion of a player, this empty salary pit, this MBBA abomination...some dude named...well....noone likes to point fingers and lay the blame at someone else's feet...everything is clear in 50/50 hindsight...but it was Salas! Salas! Salas! Salas! What an awful awful deal! No wonder he quit the management game...probably dying of shame inside...feeling a little less of a man every day..."

You ask how is that sending the franchise in the right direction? I answer to you… this guy cares. He isn’t willing to sit back and let things go unchecked. He’ll call players out when needed, he’ll cut veterans when needed, heck he’ll call other owners out when needed. This guy is the shot of adrenaline that the Sluggers needed badly.

What went wrong?
Most of what went wrong was a byproduct of what was happening prior to felipe being brought on board. There were a lot of older veteran ballplayers brought in to try and stabilize the ballclub. Those players, along with the existing stock of veterans, were not going to do much. Ex Slugger 3B Terry Coture was one such existing veteran that had somehow stuck around throughout the last few years. Coture didn’t last long as he was promptly sent to AAA Missouri after this heated exchange, felipe: "Hey you,"GM said gruffly as he grabbed the smallest passing ballplayer,"Whats your name?' Terry: "Terry Coture...do you seriously not know? I've been the starting shortstop here for the last three years. Who the hell are you supposed to be?" Felipe: "Crackin wise, eh, I'm your new GM...and guess what lunchbox...you've just been DFA'ed and put on waivers." Veteran starting pitcher Javy Cordero was the next to go as a deal was struck with Marquette to send the veteran to the Suns for role players 2B Luis Costello and MR Jeff Hartle. The formal press release stated “Cordero went to the Marquette Suns for middle reliever Jeff Hartle and infielder Luis Costello. The selling points for both were age: 27 and 29 respectively, salary commitments 300k and 1.3 mill respectively, and team control. Hartle will not reach arbitration until 2009, and Costello was immediately inked to a 3yr 2.1 mill per contract.” The next deal to be made was for Louisville to send veteran star pitcher Jessie Wright to New Orleans for 3 additional roleplayer type players. The shift was on to “right the wrongs” from what had transpired earlier in the season and during the previous seasons.

At the trade deadline the Sluggers send P Russell Vanness and star outfielder Corey Warr to Phoenix in exchange for prospects and roleplayers including CF Joseph Ellis.


On September 7, 2007, less than 8 months after signing a 2 year $12.5M total contract with Louisville, C Hurley Reyes was released. GM felipe reportedly wanted no part of the salary that was on the books in 2008 and did not feel like Reyes was worth the coin.

On September 11 2007, Louisville Sluggers released their closer, thirty-six year old Ted Dever who later signed a 2 year deal with Montreal. GM Hopkins told reporters "We love Ted, he's a legend; but over the last two years he dropped 10mph off of his velocity, 96 to 86; and his stats have corresponded to this free-fall. We're a rebuilding club, and I figured we'd bite the bullet this year, and get him off of the books, to free up some budget room for next year. It was a tough decision. But I'd rather lose Ted now, than lose a kid in April making 700k, we only have so many roster spots, and so many dollars. Can Ted still pitch? Yea probably...but he's a time bomb...is April the end or is the end two years from now? We paid 24 million so someone else could find out."


Critical decisions;
New GM felipe has concentrated on making the team better long term. His first initial act as GM was to draft what he called a “'can't miss' future star” in RF Sam Sung with the 2nd overall pick in the 2007 ammy draft. We happen to agree with Sung being a future star and a guy you can build a 2012 ballclub around. With their second pick of the 2007 draft, the 10th overall pick, the Louisville club selected fireballer Micah Valencia. After picking up P Gustav Alt with the 31st pick, 2nd pick of the supplemental round , and LF Chris Thomas with the 3th pick, pick 10 of the supplemental round, felipe is on his way to assembling a younger team. And most would say better.



Looking ahead 2008
3 key questions
1. How long will it take for Sam Sung and the rest of the youngsters to start producing? The fan base in Louisville has shown up in some years, drawing 4 million plus in 2006, and has not cared in other years, drawing 1.7 million in 2003. The team has not made the playoffs since 1996 as a wild card and fans have been concerned. Many wonder whether or not felipe will be urged by the local support structure to rush some of the prospects along to help the gate receipts. Time will tell.
2. Can the current crop of veteran players, platoon pickups, surging prospects and filler “never will be’s” be enough to keep the team competitive in 2008?
3. Who will the team draft with that upper 1st round pick in the 2008 amateur draft and how high will their pick be in 2009?

Can expect to play better
3B Devin “Fungo” Clark. See my thoughts in the 4th spot of the batting order listed below.

Can expect to play worse
Allen Izatt – Age will catch up with this hurler.

Projected batting order
1. 2B Luis Costello – Costello was brought over from the Suns in the Javy Cordero trade and made an instant impact. Costello has been a guy that can hit for above .300 average, get on base more than 40% of the time and score a decent amount of runs. The only downside is how long can a 29 year old speedster who plays 2B last? GM Hops is hoping for a few more years.
2. LF Marquez Rayas – Rayas was drafted in the 2006 rule 5 draft from Baltimore and was a platoon player for Louisville in 2007 (hitting .264 with 5 dingers in 317 atbats). The front office sign Rayas to a 3 year extension late in 2007 so it seems like he will get a decent amount of at bats while young prospect Chris Thomas develops on the farm. Look for Rayas to post a .275 average and slug 10-15 homers from the #3 spot in the order. Overall not the numbers you want in this spot but one must remember that this is Louisville.
3. RF Pat Park – Park had a great season in 2007 by hitting .277, hitting 22 homers and scoring 114 runs. The front office seems to like the guy. He is young enough to be around when RF Sung arrives and has the tools in centerfield. He will produce similar numbers in 2008 and could be one of the building blocks for the young team.
4. 3B Devin “Fungo” Clark – Fungo will be “the man” on the 2008 club. This 26 year old prospect had a cup of coffee with the big team in 2005 and 2006 before joining the Sluggers for good in 2007. He hit .270 with 14 homers in around 450 atbats for the team last year. Team officials expect a breakout year for this guy. Fungo signed a new 4 year contract with the Sluggers last season and is going to be part of the long term building process.
5. DH Cesar “Commie Child” Vega – Commie Child?! Are you serious?? What a nickname… don’t double cross this guy. And Stu is not. He was offered a 2 year extension during the offseason to stay in Louisville and become at least a part time option at DH. Looks for a decent amount of homers but little production from this guy.
6. 1B Salvador Howard – Howard is a roleplayer who will be asked to man first this season. He signed a 2 year extension last season so he was able to withstand the felipe sniff test. He will be around those 2 years to keep first base warm for whomever Louisville finds to bring up through the farm system. Howard can provide decent production if given the right spots… unfortunately he may be asked to do too much in this spot.
7. CF Joseph Ellis – Ellis was brought over in the Vanness/Warr deal with Phoenix and should be patrolling centerfield for the Sluggers until Sam Sung is developed enough to replace Pat Park in right with Park shifting to center. Can be counted on to hit around 10 homers but has a .260 or so bavg and poor obp. Should be a bottom of the order type guy.
8. SS Cody Chamberland – Cody was a free agent pickup this past offseason and signed a 2 year deal worth a total of $8m to join the Sluggers from Carolina. He is a short term solution to fill a spot on the roster at SS and will likely be a worse than average batter and fielder for the shortstop position. $8m is too much for this type of talent but that is the MBWBA free agent dilemma.
9. C Julio Martinez – Julio is not a great catcher by any means but he will be asked to fill in as much as possible. He provides above average defense at catcher and like some of the other veterans, was signed to a 2 year extension last season.

And there are your 2008 Louisville Sluggers batters. Some great pieces, some ok pieces, and a few oh my pieces.


Rotation
Ace Allen Izatt – I am not sure how Izatt escaped 2007 on the Sluggers roster but somehow he has won the favor of GM Hopkins and is still around. How long will the 35 year old last? He is nearing the end of his 4 year free agent contract that he signed in 2004 and could become trade bait should any contenders lose a pitcher for any length of time.
Starter Bob Stenis – The 35 year old Stenis comes over from across the pond where he pitched for Amsterdam and Brussells the last few seasons. The free agent was given a 2 year deal for a total of $5.3M this last offseason and will be asked to picth every 5th day for Louisville. Could Stenis be the pitching version of long time EBA veteran Simon Caeser?
Starter Chris Allen – Not a great pitcher by any means but signed a 2 year extension at the end of last year so the front office sees something.
Starter Antonio Jimenez – Came over from Phoenix in the Vanness/Warr deal and this could be the time to test the 27 year old Jimenez. Since being drafted in round 2 by Vegas in 2001 he has been traded a few times and has never seen the bigs.
Starter Malcolm Jones – Jones came over from Marquette as part of the Strathallan deal in 2005. At 26 years old Jones may get a crack at the rotation to see what he has to offer. He has tools but he has not pitched in the bigs.


Closer
Nathan Campbell – Campbell has seen his era rise each of the last few seasons and it could be make or break time for this reliever. Given a 3 year extension by the front office last season he’ll need to show he can bounce back from a rough season last year.

[Al-Hoot]

Outstanding!

If you fix the couple links with format errors, it would be Outstandier!

(Yeah, I know, I do wish it was a hell of a lot easier to link to players, esp in long articles)



Louisville already has players getting injured running around on the beach rather than playing ball. Typical.

[felipe]

This is fantastic

I love things about me

Goddamn Pat Hughes and his girlfriend

[bigmike13]

That is about a thorough a write up as you can get

[recte44]

Devin Clark appears to have finally filled out, still hasn't posted a positive VORP in three years. And has a reverse split.

I'm interested to see how Stenis does.