Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrej72
I am not surprised that Houston is active in the off-season after having by far the worst record in the league. :-) Are they strong enough financially to improve their team significantly?
As for the Brewers, Taranto had a really solid season, and he still has plenty of years remaning in his career hopefully.
|
I should probably start with a little history in case this is something you aren't familiar with yet for the WPK: the Houston Cavaliers entered the league as one of two expansion clubs (along with the Chicago Fire) prior to the 1975 season and as is expected of expansion clubs they haven't been very good in their first several seasons (though they did have a little run at respectability in 1976 when they finished 76-86).
They made a big move in the offseason between 1976 and 1977 when they signed the foremost free agent that winter, superstar center fielder Lazaro Lowndes. It was perhaps a bit of a premature step as even though Lowndes had a wonderful season in 1977 the team fell back to 67-95 and then in 1978 Lowndes had one of the poorest seasons of his career and is very unhappy playing on this losing team.
As for finances, well, no they don't have a lot of extra money and their owner is rather stingy. On the other hand, early indications in terms of season ticket sales are optimistic and they should have increased revenues this upcoming season.
It should also be noted that a few years ago the rules in the league were changed (through the League Evolution process) and it now requires more years of WPK service for a player to become a free agent and teams have more years of control of players and therefore the free agent market tends to be a bit older than it used to be and not quite as attractive a way for a team to build a contender. This has the effect of providing really good teams with a chance to stay good longer but it also means that teams with a lot of money have slightly less of an advantage over poorer teams in that at least it is harder to buy a winning team through free agency. So there is more emphasis on building a strong farm system and developing players, on making smart trades, on using alternative approaches like the Rule 5 draft, etc.
And this is where we have to offer some praise and hope for the Houston Cavaliers. They currently have the 3rd best farm system in the WPK, with third baseman Steve Whitehead looking like he will be a top candidate for the SJL Rookie of the Year honors in 1979 (only weakness might be that he is injury prone), a great defensive center field prospect in Chris Heisler who should also develop a potent bat and is probably a year or two away from joining the big club, and a side-arming left-handed starting pitcher Jacob Whittemore, who has a lot of development needed yet as he is only 18 years old, but is already considered the 4th best prospect in all of the WPK. They also have a 23-year old third base prospect named Roberto Lira who may never gain enough contact hitting skills to be a useful starting player but has tremendous power potential and strong defensive skills.
And in addition to the moves already outlined here earlier, they were able to get the most developed and most promising player available in this year's Rule 5 draft, potential future dominant closer Ricky Marroquin.
So while the Cavaliers will probably have a few more lean years ahead, the future is looking promising for them. And certainly more so than for their fellow expansion mates the Chicago Fire, but that is a story for another time.
Now, as for the Brewers and
Taranto- well one of the best qualities about our friend
Brett is that, unlike some of the other biggest position player stars on the Brewers (I'm looking at you
Bobby Erbakan, and yes, you
Rich White, and yes, even somewhat at you,
Joe McPhillips), he has proven to be very durable, having yet to suffer an injury of any sort, even of the day-to-day variety, in his professional baseball career. He will only be making the league minimum salary again this upcoming season and then has 3 years of arbitration eligibility in which he will surely get a huge boost in his wages. Of course it is also very likely that the team will sign him to a long-term extension long before those arbitration years have ended.