Louisville Legend 1.03 - Here we go again

[robster49]

We hope this was not what General Manager Rob Starke and his new staff had in mind for the 2002 season. Despite several offseason additions, the Sluggers have picked up right where they left off, starting the 2002 campaign a dismal 7-14, "good" for last place in the JL Atlantic. They haven't won a game at home, rank near the bottom of the league in most offensive categories, and are last in most pitching categories. To make matters even more critical, rumors are swirling that the the clubhouse is angry and that a possible firesale is being planned by Starke, who refused to talk to media for the second consecutive week.

What's Gone Right
Robin Larker has jumped out of the gate hot with 8 home runs. He has played his way not just back into the starting lineup after opening the season as a reserve, he has forced himself into the cleanup slot.

Rob Van Winkle is hitting as well as ever with a .325 average, 4 HR, and 16 runs. Although extension negotiations have "turned ugly" according to reports, RVW is putting that aside on the field.

Orlando Martinez continues to be consistent at the plate and may be settling in as the #3 hitter for the Sluggers. .337/4 HR/17 RBI to start the season.

John Doherty has turned in 3 good starts in 4 for a pitching staff desperately counting on their one time ace to regain his form. He's 2-1 with a 3.04 ERA and a 9.79 K/9 rate to start the year.

Other notable bright spots have been catcher John Baldwin and his 16 walks to help justify his large offseason extension, Michael Reeve who has hit .324 at the hot corner, and waiver addition Patrick Breese with 4 saves in 4 tries and no earned runs as closer.

What's Gone Wrong
In short, everything else. New additions have really been more like subtractions to this point. Mike Rebhan had a great opening start and has struggled since. Ray Weighill has been terrible to start the season with an ERA over 7.00. Jiao-long Lam followed a dreadful spring with an awful April and may be demoted. And Ted Shaw has found that the change of scenery from Marquette hasn't helped him a bit to the tune of a 0-2 record, 6.08 ERA, and 1.89 WHIP in 3 starts.

On offense, the team brought in Jay Burns, and in a controversial contract, Flavio Luna to put up more runs. Burns has struck out 23 times in 20 games (on par with his career numbers) but has yet to homer with a sub .300 OBP. Luna has just one bomb so far along with a .247 average and a dreary 3 walks along with 22 strikeouts.

Holdovers are also responsible for the poor start. Opening day second baseman Lloyd Levin was benched for Larker after starting the year with a .094 average in 9 games. Starter Nate Minchey has a 7.71 ERA through 4 outings and may be moved to the bullpen to clear his head. Additionally, the bullpen has been a complete disaster for the most part.

With little in the form of prospects on the horizon, this could be a long season in Loserville.

[Al-Hoot]

Yeah Hawaii remembers that good start by Mike Rebhan.
It's a long season. I figure if things keep going the way they are, it'll be you, me ,and TimB in the race for trying to avoid the worst record. Maybe one other team, I dunno.

[robster49]

It's never to early to race for the #1 pick - one of us will win!

[Al-Hoot]

I dunno if any number one pick will even sign with my club, despite our enviable setting and wonderful Polynesian ball girls.

[robster49]

What factors will influence a player signing with a club or not? Typically in my solo leagues, they would sign for close to what their bonus demand was. I also usually have a more successful team though in those leagues so I'm a little curious if I'll have difficulty in the upcoming draft.

[Al-Hoot]

What factors will influence a player signing with a club or not? Typically in my solo leagues, they would sign for close to what their bonus demand was. I also usually have a more successful team though in those leagues so I'm a little curious if I'll have difficulty in the upcoming draft.

Maybe one of us should ask this under League Chatter. Cause I dunno about this in an online fictional league such as this one...

Well, I do know that you can look at a player's profile in the draft pool and see how hard or easy it will be for your team to sign him. Unfortunately for Hawaii, I have looked at the top six prospects, and even further down the list, and 90% of them say it will be hard to very hard to extremely hard for Hawaii to sign them. Which sux big time, because if that is true, I see no real long term solution to making a bad team better.

In all cases, I think signing a high school player is more difficult than signing a college dude.

[aaronweiner]

It could be worse. You could be Birmingham.

[recte44]

Each player has a different degree of signability. The biggest factor is to make sure you have plenty of money available to go over slot. If you don't, you can only offer slot and thus won't be able to sign many players from the draft's first five rounds.

[salas]

Just throw loads of money at them like the Tigers do with their draft picks...they'll sign...

[Al-Hoot]

What factors will influence a player signing with a club or not? Typically in my solo leagues, they would sign for close to what their bonus demand was. I also usually have a more successful team though in those leagues so I'm a little curious if I'll have difficulty in the upcoming draft.

Per the manual

Factors Affecting Player Contract Decisions
Money talks, and the configuration of your contract offer has the biggest impact on whether or not a player will accept a contract offer. However, above and beyond the contract terms, players are affected by a number of factors when considering a contract, including:

* the distance of the franchise from the player's hometown
* the level of the league (good players might not be interested in playing in a low-level league)
* your team's reputation
* your manager reputation
* your team's recent performance
* the likelihood of playing time
* the player's morale (especially with contract extensions)
* the player's personality

The first one kinda bites for Hawaii, but then everything does these days. Actually, I think a lot of players would want to get as far away as home as they could.

I think the game should rate the desirability of living in a given location. I'm sure more ppl would prefer Hawaii than a lot of places, cough cough Cleveland.

Each player has a different degree of signability. The biggest factor is to make sure you have plenty of money available to go over slot. If you don't, you can only offer slot and thus won't be able to sign many players from the draft's first five rounds.

Yeah they do have a different degree of signability, but I see a never-ending black hole if my team is so bad that no one wants to sign there, and we can't get any great prospects and as fan interest decreases, and we just stay terrible forever.

[recte44]

Perhaps you just need to go a different route, such as building through free agency?