[rpriske]

This is my first go at OOTP and I LOVE it! I decided to run the 2012 Jays my first time out to learn the ropes... and boy, what a learning process it has been. Sometimes it is learning the OOTP mechanics and sometimes I discover my ideas about baseball are not what I thought they were. (I am a strat guy. This is VERY different.)

The first couple of transactions before the season started were kind of to learn the game. I signed Johnny Damon to a 1-year 4.5m contract. Obviously I wouldn't think that would be a good idea... I mean, the one thing the '12 Jays did NOT need is another Left fielder.

Next I traded Jason Frasor and Omar Vizquel to the Rockies for Willin Rosario and Tommy Field. I really like Rosario so even though the Jays are deep in catching prospects, I am okay with having another one. I'll miss Frasor but NOT Vizquel (though the fans were mad that I traded him). I took Field because moving Vizquel brought McCoy to the majors, leaving little depth at middle infield.

Figuring I had the hang of it now, the next signing was VERY intentional: Roy Oswalt, 1-year, $12m. I sent Cecil and Snider to AAA and brought up Drew Carpenter to pitch out of the bullpen.

After about 20 games it very apparent that this is NOT a very good team. Bautista was hot, leading the league in homeruns. Encarnacion was NOT getting many dingers, but he was hitting around .350. Oswalt was pitching well, though not superstar level. Pretty much everybody else was levels of disappontment. Damon was doing okay, but not worth the money. Santos had a blown a few saves already (though Darren Oliver was showing some nice numbers). Arencibia and Rasmus were the big disappointments. J.P. was hitting .150 and Rasmus was not much better.

On MY end I started realizing that I was running WAY too much, though that did mean Rajai Davis was leading the league in steals despite being a part-time player.

Kelly Johnson did a stint on the 15-day DL which meant playing time for Mike McCoy (and a bit for Tommy Field). That is not great.

I decided to send Arencibia down and bring up d'Arnaud (ignoring the service time issue). I stuck with Rasmus, though I set it so Davis played more often to take advantage of his relative success.

Dustin McGowan came off the DL and I put him in the rotation, bumping Drabek back to Las Vegas. McGowan was not good. Earlier I had realized that I had no real long relief so I brought up Tim Redding to eat some innings. He was terrible. I ended up stretching Carlos Villenueva out and putting him in the rotation, shuffling McGowan to the long relief job and releasing Redding after he refused a minor league assignment.

Somewhere in there Francisco Cordero told me that he was unhappy that he was not the closer. By this point Ryota Igarashi had come up and Santos, Oliver and Igarashi were ALL outperforming Cordero. I took his complaint under advisement and traded him to Detroit for minor league second baseman Justin Henry... saving some of that money I went over budget on in the pre-season.

I have since passed the 40 games mark and we are still about 4 games under .500. d'Arnaud was clearly not ready and he went back down. Rosario was injured at just the wrong time so I am back to Arencibia, though he is doing no better. CF had become a batting wasteland as Rasmus continued his season long slump and Rajai Davis joined him in it. I sent Rasmus to AAA to work out his problems and brought Travis Snider up. Though the idea of Snider playing CF fills me with dread, that was my only immediate answer. I put Davis on waivers to also send him to AAA, but before that cleared (actually it cleared and I mucked it up - pulling him off the waiver list before I sent him down), I shopped him and Arizona was interested. I guess 20 SB seems impressive... even though he was hitting .180. I traded him for Brad Ziegler and then called up Ricardo Nanita to play CF when I feel that Snider's defense is going to be an issue.

I signed Encarnacion to a 3-year extension, averaging about $8m per year. I signed Igarashi to a 2-year contract for $1.1m total. I opened negotiations with Oswalt, but I don't think it is going to happen. He is looking for 5 years and I am not willing to commit that just yet.

So here I am:

Rotation: Romero, Oswalt, Morrow, Alvarez, Villenueva
Bullpen: Santos, Igarashi, Oliver, Ziegler, Janssen, Farquar, McGowan
C: Arencibia, Mathis
1B: Lind
2B: Johnson
3B: Lawrie
SS: Escobar
U: McCoy
OF: Damon, Snider, Bautista, Thames, Nanita
DH: Encarnacion


One of the interesting things is looking at all the injuries other teams have had. So far I had Rasmus miss 1 game as DtD and Johnson go on the DL, but come back 100%.

I will say that I was a little disappointed that the published Draft Pool wasn't real players. Since the actual draft is long past, couldn't THOSE players be included?

As I say, I am new, so maybe there is a reason I don't know.