2063.2 Brownie Bites Offseason moves

[handaspencer]

I would like to take a few moments and provide some updates on your new Brook Park Brownies. 2063 has been an extremely busy offseason in more ways than one. Just moving the team from Omaha to Brook Park alone was so much to do it one offseason but the team has finally settled in and its back to business as usual. The offseason started off a little on the slow side with not much happening, but the past few weeks have been extremely busy in Brook Park. I am going to highlight some of the activity this offseason in Brook Park.

Brook Park lost quite a bit of pitching this offseason as GM Spencer let some of the older SP hit the FA market. We were wanting to bring in some young SP talent and let them compete for some jobs. We have done that quite a bit on the offensive side and has some decent success doing that. Our pitching staff has been older the last few years so we are going to bring in some new blood and let them compete. One of the guys that will be competing is Jose Martinez who was drafted in the rule 5 draft this past offseason. He throws hard with a 5 pitch mix, he seems like someone who could be a spot starter for us or fill the long man role out of the pen. We want to let him compete and see if he can grow in the BBA.

Ironically the first trade Brook Park made after moving was with Rosenblatt the team it worked with on the team relocations. This was not part of the location swap but it was a perfect match for both teams. After Rosenblatt made some major FA signings they needed to free up some contracts to continue to build the team. GM Spencer said we liked some guys early on in FA but it quickly became a market we didn't want to spend a lot of dollars in after some of the targets went off the board. We had quite a bit of money to spend and we needed to decide how to spend that money. Steven Flannery was posted on the block and Rosenblatt was willing to send some prospects along with him. Flannery has 3 years remaining on his contract with a 17 AAV. When we looked at our future payroll we felt comfortable that we could absorb that 17AAV and we believe in Flannery as a picher. He might no longer be a 17 AAV picher but he has been a great pitcher in this league for many years. Although we are looking younger in the pitching staff bringing in guys like Flannery is a big plus for the younger guys.

The prospects that arrived to Brook Park was OSA #23 Quiang Yao and reliever Danny Clark.
We are extremely excited about both guys and we believe both guys can have future success in the BBA. When we first joined the organization we wanted to put a focus on a complete organizational development. Omaha had been a winning organization for years and that's obviously what we want to do as well but sometimes the farm can dry up from all the on the field success. Its really hard to keep all levels at premium performance year after year. We have not focused on bringing in the top end prospects but rather focusing on building depth throughout the organization. We are a long ways from where we want to be but both these guys provide a big punch for us as our minor league system depth continues to grow each year.

One area on the big club we continue to want to get better at is defensively up the middle. Vancouver was looking to move C Luis Gonzalez and Brook Park sent them 2 million dollars for the final year of his contract. We really like having a good defensive catcher in our catching group for the roster and Gonzalez filled that spot.

In the most shocking move of the offseason so far Brook Park traded star closer Dave Ferrell after spending 12 years in Omaha and making 5 All Star appearances and also being the reliever of the year 1x. Ferrell has an almost complete total clean bill of health and is an iron man and still has several good seasons left in him. Trading Ferrell was the hardest thing we have done GM Spencer said since we took over this organization. The interest has been extremely high for Ferrell the past few years and he is a fan favorite but for our organization we believe it was the right thing to do.

To headline the deal for Brook Park Ivan Alvarado will be coming to Brook park. Alvarado in his first full season in the BBA had a breakout season last year. Alvarado hit .291 last year with 26 HR and 98 RBI in 140 games started. Alvarado provides a solid bat in this lineup for us, and we are looking at putting him in the middle of the lineup. It was important to us to get someone with BBA success or near BBA ready and Alvarado fits that bill. This was a big move for this organization and we recognize that GM Spencer said but we believe this will have long term benefits to this organization.

While GM Spencer is typically not a heavy trader this offseason proved to be different. We just didn't love the FA market this offseason for what we was looking for. We felt the trade market was the path this offseason to acquire the chips we needed. We are still looking for more moves we don't feel like we are where we want to be yet. We are looking to get better everyday in Brook Park and we are excited for the coming season.

[JRamirez]

Iván Alvarado looks good

[BaseClogger]

Martinez was the perfect target for a team looking to infuse their rotation with some youthful upside. I like the other moves a lot too! Building with a plan.