37.20 I'm sure I'm jinxing something

[crobillard]

At the end of the season, when everyone comes out with those early predictions, it's most definitely too soon. How about when one starts talking about next season before the playoffs end...playoffs that they are a part of. Yikes.

I know I am not supposed to talk about it. Something terrible will happen over the next two sims and Alan and I will have to go back to the drawing board, but I wanted to talk briefly about my deal with the Brooklyn Robins.

Edmonton Gets
DH Fernando Cruz
SP Francisco Ruiz (14 - 11, 3.16 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 233 K)

Brooklyn Gets
CL Pjotr Eland) (AA)
SP Juan Rodriguez (AA)
RP Ivan Meerkerk) (AA)
RP Larry Good) (AA)
CF Po-sin Shi) (R)
$10 million

Here it is in all it's glory. For the record, I think this deal checks off a lot of boxes for both of our franchises. It gives the Robins some financial flexibility, four good pitching prospects, a defensive-minded, speedy platoon outfielder who is really close to fully developed and some more cash on top of all of it. I give up a lot and I get two big pieces that I hope will help me compete against these big boys in the Frick. Through this season and postseason, I realized that in order to really contend in this league I have to lean into the power paradigm a lot more than I like to. I really hate the homerun or strikeout mentality and I feel like unless you get very, very lucky most of your team will fall along those lines playing into that way of building a team.

As it has been noted before though, power is more of a sought after commodity now more than ever. Cruz is an absolute beast in that department too. Yeah, he's expensive, can't play in the field and looks ugly, but he's sexy at the plate and I cannot wait to see what he does to my lineup next season.

Then, there's Ruiz. Hiroyuki Rin (10 - 8, 4.02 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 133 K) was a rental. I figured he would pitch well in my park, but I wouldn't be able to resign him. Then, he didn't want to talk to me about resigning, so he made the choice easy. Also, I know I apparently have a good pitching staff, but I've never been too fond of it. At the very start of the season I thought it was a huge weakness that I was patching with Rin and Jesus Ramos in my rotation. Ruiz has been really good for the Robins for the past four seasons. He has a career 3.55 ERA. This looks like the first season he's had without an injury though, so we'll have to take care of him. I'm sure he has a big payday in arbitration coming up as well. Getting this deal done now though hopefully gives me the opportunity to control that though.

I was going to put some lineup and rotation predictions here, but it's far too early and there are too many moving pieces this offseason. Having Bobby Lynch (17 - 4, 2.74 ERA, 0.95 WHIP, 183 K), Francisco Ruiz (14 - 11, 3.16 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 233 K) and Chet Parrish (7 - 4, 3.10 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 96 K) at the top of the rotation and Steven Collins III (.297/.334/.423, 8 HR, 60 RBI), Luis Costello (.312/.357/.512, 28 HR, 116 RBI), Mitch Dalrymple (.286/.324/.448, 17 HR, 65 RBI), Fernando Cruz and Eric Fabre (.270/.352/.538, 31 HR, 78 RBI) at the top of the lineup really sets the stage for next season. I'm excited.