2061 Yellow Springs Nine

[trmmilwwi]

2061 Yellow Springs Nine

Recent History

2058 Record: 65-97, .401
2059 Record: 70-92, .432
2060 Record: 64-98, .395

The Nine are on a rebuilding mission the last several seasons. Their last winning season was in 2051 when they went to the last of their playoff appearances. Interesting note they went to the playoffs in 24 of 26 seasons and have never won a BBA Championship. Their 2060 team ERA of 4.87 was their worst in nearly 25 years. Their .242 team batting average was the 2nd worst in the last 40 years. However, the bright spot is that they still draw fans. Yellow Springs had 3.4 million fans in 2060.

Key Transactions

Departures:
Free agent C Farid bin Mubarak (1.0 WAR in 2060) – Signed by Bikini for 1 yr, $2.05M
Free agent RP Bryce Sparks (0.5 WAR in 2060) – Currently a free agent
Free agent C Jesus Rodriguez (0.0 WAR in 2060) – Signed by Charlotte for 1 yr, $2.75M
Free agent 1B Burhan Tahir (1.6 WAR in 2060) – Currently a free agent
Free agent RP Brody Picot (2.5 WAR in 2060) – Signed by Bikini for 1 yr, $5.5M
Free agent DH Mal Fountain (1.7 WAR in 2060) – Currently a free agent
Retired SP Dave Lee (-0.3 WAR in 2060)

Arrivals:
Drafted CF Carlos Macerino in 1st round, pick 3, via Rule 5 from Charm City.
Drafted SP Masruq bin Ihsan in 2nd round, pick 3, via Rule 5 from Vancouver.
Drafted SP Ratib 'Ace' bin Kateb in 3rd round, pick 3, via Rule 5 from Valencia.
Signed 26 year old free agent RP Baz Badr to a 3 year, $6M deal.
Signed GBC legend Quinn Greene to a minor league deal.

Financials

2059 salary – $108.4M
2060 salary – $107.6M
2061 salary – $58.5M

The Nine lost a bunch of players via free agency and decided to take a long term approach to team building this offseason. The payroll was slashed by almost 50% and no huge signings were made. There were two questionable moves that they made in 2060 by bringing in Sparks and Rodriguez via trade and decided to let both walk at the end of the year. That shows a decided shift from trying to find value in current short term deals to make a surge in the standings and maybe extending the contracts out to instead sorting through diamonds in the rough. They brought in LF Majd bin Nawaf from Nashville on a huge trade a few seasons ago in which they lost a bunch of long term prospects.

2061 Roster

Starting Pitching
The Nine have a glut of pitchers that are rated between 40 and 50 on OOTP’s scale, 17 as of this writing. Sorting through there seems to be a duo of high priced vets that will get a shot at proving their stuff. These starting pitchers include Ollie Lowery ($13M), Cory McGuire ($6.6M). Lowry has fallen off a bit the last few years but has the chops from earlier in his career. He certainly will get his chance to lead the team on opening day. McGuire is a 6 year vet and although he had a down year last season is a major league talent. Alfredo Anaya had a cup of coffee last season and went 1-3 but had decent counting stats. He will be a solid starter in his sophomore season. Hannes 'Say hey' Schwarzacher is another youngster that will get a long look this season. He is a lefty that has had two solid seasons in Ohio. Say Hey walks a lot of batters but keeps the ball in the yard. He is a solid back of the order pitcher. Rounding out the starting five will likely be Bartolo Borquez. He had a rough rookie season going 4-4 with an ERA around 6. The 25 year old has some speed on his pitches but tops out fairly low on his mastery of pitching.

Relief Pitching
The relief corps is a large group of middling players. 35 year old veteran Rolf Reinhart had a decent first season with Yellow Springs going 505 with a sub 4 ERA and will anchor things. 26 year old free agent Baz Badr signed with the Nine in the offseason after having his early career in Buenos Aires in the GBC. He throws hard, 99-100 mph, and has 4 great pitches. His 1 stamina makes me think he will get a shot as the lockdown closer. Raul Morales (more on him later), Ken Houston, Alphonse Lease, Jesus Rios and Pedro Gonzalez all comes back form the relief squad last season and will be fighting for spots on the team. There are no rising stars in the bunch and it will be a sink or swim chance for them. The rest of the players vying for a spot are all minor league free agent signings during this offseason. The group includes Guo-liang Chen, Goeffrey Robert, Dane Colclough and Bill Williams. It's buyer’s choice for which may stick.

Batting
Projected Lineup
1. RF Bill Bowers
2. CF Don Anderson
3. 1B Emilio Navarro
4. LF Majd bin Nawaf
5. DH Quinn Greene
6. 3B Roberto Rivera
7. 2B Juan Silva
8. C Jose Mendoza
9. SS Cesar Aybar

This team comes down to how far Navarro and bin Nawaf can carry them. Bin Nawaf was the key piece of the huge trade with Nashville last offseason. He had a rough year in Yellow Springs, slashing .235/17/63. Not the kind of production Rob had in mind. He has a bit of protection in the lineup so his second season with the Nine should go better. Navarro is a rising stud at first. His talents are filled out and in his late seasons tint last year he batted .311 with 7 homers. He is hot off of a successful development lab stint improving both his defense and his baserunning. He is still a liability in the field but he will make up for it at the plate. Free agent pickup Quinn Greene is a huge experiment to see if his prodigious power in the GBC will transfer to the parks in America. Yellow Springs somehow made the splash to lure him with a no money deal to Ohio to try and recreate his .317/50/131 line from his play overseas. Yep, that is his 162 avg stat line over his 14 seasons in the GBC. The dude should have a bust in Greece already. He is that stacked. Bowers is an elite defender with a good eye at the plate but is otherwise suspect. Don Anderson is an above average player in center. Roberto Rivera will hold down the hot corner with some decent power and okay defense. Silva is a solid defensive second baseman with good skills at the plate. I expect a bounce back season from the 24 year old youngster after a lackluster 2060 campaign. Mendoza is a solid defensive backstop with okay plate skills. Aybar is a defense first shortstop that can absolutely fill in at the other infield spots and hold his own. His plate skills aren’t great but he will be serviceable. Overall there is an interesting mix of high powered batters and solid defenders but it will be a mish mosh of the two. Expect a lot of runs to be scored when watching the Nine this season.

Wildcard

The most interesting player other than Quinn Greene may be two way player Raul Morales. The relief pitcher has above average command on the mound even tough he has had some rough stats. Two years ago he had an ERA above 5 and this last season it was close to 7 than 6. However, he should get another chance to pitch every 5th day. He is also a decent bat at the plate with above average ratings. He doesn’t do anything great but can fill in at 1B and LF. It should be fun to watch what kind of role he plays as the season continues.

Prediction

I think this will be another tough year for the Nine. There will be days where the extreme power at the top half of the starting lineup will dominate and show what is possible and excite the fans. However, the poor back half of the starting rotation will hurt the team as the season wears on. The bullpen has a lot of bodies, but it will be a struggle to find the right pieces and parts. The fans will come and enjoy the high scoring games but it will be another year of rebuilding in Ohio.

Lets go with 58-104.

[BaseClogger]

Greene and Badr could be sneaky good pickups.

[trmmilwwi]

Greene and Badr could be sneaky good pickups.

That Greene platoon vs R's could be exciting.

Those GBCers apparently like Yellow Springs.

[RT60]

58 wins!? That means Louisville might get less than 50!

[Trebro]

Badr was a disastr.

I knew this year would be terrible. it was a bit worse than I'd hoped for. But i think staying away from bad FA signings was the right way to go. might do it again. I do wish we didn't have to lock down development $$ so quickly in the off season.