65.05 Active Roster Evolution: 2065 Edition

[Bob Breum]

New annual custom: Tracking the evolution of my active roster from one Opening Day to the next.

2025 Active Roster Evolution.pdf

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We lost two front-line starting pitchers as well as the backend of the bullpen. We traded our former MVP for a starting pitcher prospect.

How will we replace their production? I addressed this in my previous post (65.04), but I thought it would be nice to lay it out in a chart. Júlio Madrid and Jack Kunkel will replace Jorge Trinidad and Wlodz Sidelsky in the bullpen. That's the easy part.

Erik will be the first to tell you that our rotation is very much a work in progress. Hipakeiki Olba and Craig Greenway will join the rotation for now; expect them to get 10 starts before any changes are made if they aren't completely overmatched. Pablo Guerrero and David Uribe will work out of the pen.

Jesús Ramos forced his way into the starting lineup last season and is getting the opportunity to play first base this season against right-handed pitching. Miller Shed was brought in to play second versus right-handed pitching to allow Jaime Serna to replace Terovolas at third base. Jim Garrick has nothing left to prove in the minors and will start against right-handed pitching. Joshua Ackland (RF) and Fouad bin Bashshar (3B) are platooning versus left-handed pitching.

Our hope is that offensive production improves sufficiently to offset any decline in our starting pitching. We plan to employ a very quick hook with our starters if they encounter trouble.

[ae37jr]

You guys always blow my mind with how you squeeze every ounce of talent out of pitchers. So I have no doubt that you are going to make this work. But I took a look at your staff last night and had an anxiety attack.

-3 disruptive pitchers(with team captain on trade block)
-4 man rotation anchored by a 36 year old wrecked P
-a 1 stamina/3 control fragile stopper
-11 man pitching staff

It looks like a recipe for disaster. Yet, I will not bet against you guys making it work.

[Bob Breum]

You guys always blow my mind with how you squeeze every ounce of talent out of pitchers. So I have no doubt that you are going to make this work. But I took a look at your staff last night and had an anxiety attack.

-3 disruptive pitchers(with team captain on trade block)

The same three disruptive pitchers were present last season. You're right, captain Dan Wilkinson is the oil on the troubled waters who keeps our team chemistry near or at Ecstatic.

What happens if we trade Dan? I don't know, but I do know that I've got two BBA-ready first basemen (one LH, one RH) waiting in the wings.

[Bob Breum]

You guys always blow my mind with how you squeeze every ounce of talent out of pitchers. So I have no doubt that you are going to make this work. But I took a look at your staff last night and had an anxiety attack.

-a 1 stamina/3 control fragile stopper

He's sharing stopper duties with Julio Madrid.

Adam Bristcoe led the league in 5 of the last 6 seasons in appearances with a stamina of 1 as our sole stopper. He's now been put out to pasture as our closer because his stuff has declined at age 33.

Although it's not obvious, Kunkel successfully completed training to improve his pitch control this offseason. Maybe it'll bump to a 4.

[Bob Breum]

You guys always blow my mind with how you squeeze every ounce of talent out of pitchers. So I have no doubt that you are going to make this work.

It looks like a recipe for disaster. Yet, I will not bet against you guys making it work.

100% of the credit for our pitching success belongs to Erik. My sole contributions are scrounging FA/waived pitchers whom I think he might like and arranging trades at his behest.

[Bob Breum]

-11 man pitching staff

This is on me. It's much easier to find quality platoon hitters than paying the price in FA $ or trade capital to acquire guys that hit and field well with little or no platoon factor. Of course, building out lineups this way consumes roster space.

Erik agreed to the 11-man staff in hopes that we could actually give his pitchers some run support this season.

On paper, there's not a weak hitter in the lineup against either hand. In theory, we should be able to score runs with any team in the league. I optimize for our ballpark with its big boost in the gaps, but we have sluggers and contact hitters as well. It remains to be seen what the RNG plans for us this season.