[luckymann]

No point in hanging around, I have a new home to decide upon.

As I mentioned earlier, the five leagues with a Reputation of 3 are Maine, Montana, Rhode Island, South Dakota and Vermont.

The teams eligible for my consideration are:

• MEL: Bangor Lumber Barons (35-70, 32 GB)
• MTL: Butte Mountaineers (34-71, 31 GB)
• RIL: Pawtucket Slaters (31-74, 51 GB)
• SDL: Rapid City Monuments (44-61, 26 GB)
• VTL: Montpelier Green Mountain Boys (44-61, 16 GB)

I rule out the Green Mountain Boys immediately, as they made the National Championship in 1951.

If I were feeling super-masochistic then Pawtucket would be an ideal way to flagellate myself—they are an utter basket case. But I’m keen to keep moving onward and upward through these lower reaches as speedily as possible, so I’ll save that penance for another time.

The other three teams each have aspects that appeal to me.

Bangor has an absolute gun CF in Sam Glenn, with a decent offensive support crew around him. Their pitching is terrible, although they do have lights out prospect Chris Mazilli. All in all it’s a manageable roster, but the owner is Lucifer reincarnate. Pass, life’s too short for that shirt.

Rapid City has two fantastic SP but its bullpen is shambolic to say the least. It has an abundance of position players who would make good trade bait for some decent pitching. But it is an old group without a prospect to its name, a monument to short-term planning (you see what I did there?). Close, but no cheroot.

Butte is my choice. They’re very much the middle ground in this bunch. Halfway decent roster with a few good prospects, plenty of budget space and an owner who seems fair-minded. A genuine superstar in 1B Chris Macon. An up-and-coming ace in southpaw Jake Pargis and a good-looking SS prospect in Ben Pope, whom I think I tried to sign at Honolulu. Only 41 in the squad for some reason, so room to add players, with a payroll that is reasonable and not at all top-heavy, with the top earner getting just $34k.

The job is available. I apply for it and get taken on, signing a 3-year contract. My salary is a huge jump from the pittance Honolulu was paying me – a whopping $22k a season. Butte is renowned for its range of temperatures, from below freezing in winter to scorchio in summer. On those wages, I’ll be able to afford a place with both air-con and central heating, as well as all the sheepskins products known to man.

My first job is to ascertain just how much of a mess my predecessor left the place in. Before anything else, pending offers and arbitration need to be looked at and taken care of one way or another. In order to be able to make these sorts of calls, I need to familiarise myself with the players I have.

CATCHERS

• Dan Foote, 25 RHB: Dan is a typical “good glove, no bat” backstop. That said, he managed to hit .285 last season. In the squad as it is, he’s the starter at this position. He’s on league minimum, too.
• Justin Howell, 26 RHB: not much of anything, really, and at $17k per is a likely trade option.
• Jonathan Secor, 24 RHB: only marginally worse than Howell but on an MiLB salary so he’s better value.

INFIELDERS

• 1B Chris Macon, 25 LHB: like Malone at Honolulu, a player to build a club around. Won the MTL MVP Award in 1950 and had an even better season the one just past, with a .352 / .493 / .688 slash, 30 dingers and 87 RBI, an OPS+ of 183 and a league-leading 6.7 WAR. Earned $17k last year, arb estimate is 36k, an offer on the table for $30k. I’ll happily pay more to get him locked down.
• 1B Roberto Ardila, 22 RHB: #2 prospect yet to play a game in the MTL but who looks ready now. Problem being we have Macon, who isn’t a great defensive 1B and is an even worse OF. Still, I think that’s the only move available to me: Macon in LF, Ardila @ 1B. Of course that’s just my initial reaction. It certainly bears more investigation, given the holes in this squad and how many of them could be decently filled by trading Ardila.
• 2B Alan Ringenbach, 27 RHB: FA eligible which means the only chance of keeping him is via an expensive QA. Hits for OK contact (.301 BA last season), but has as much pop as a balloon in a vacuum. His defence is his greatest asset, but I just don’t think he’s worth the $$. Especially given the coverage we have in the middle infield, as you’ll soon see.
• 2B Travis Greenblatt, 30 RHB: couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat but scouting on him raves about how he gives it all he’s got. Which is laudable, but doesn’t score you many runs or win you many games. At 30, he’s trade bait.
• 3B Ted Calvert, 27 SHB: a solid, if unspectacular sort of utility infielder. Hit a buck 97 last season, so he’ll need to be better than that. On league minimum and plays 2B / 3B / SS solidly enough to make him a keeper.
• 3B Alvin Nelson, 36 LHB: would have been handy in his day, no doubt, but that day is gone or nearly so. At $18k he is an expendable luxury we can’t afford.
• 3B Jimmy Poland, 31 RHB: his biggest liability in my setup is that he only plays 3B. I am all about versatility. If he was a gun, maybe I would be able to look past his one-dimensionality. But he isn’t, so I can’t. Plus he’s on $17k. We can get better than him for that.
• 3B Felix Veraza, 25 RHB: see my comments about Poland. The only thing that makes Felix a potential keeper is that he’s on the min.
• SS Drake Brown, 24 RHB: OK contact hitter, little power, average defence. Will hang on to him for now and see how things pan out. He’ll likely start somewhere on Opening Day, just not sure where.
• SS Ted Grindstaff, 26 RHB: apparently a real gamer. Hit .308 in limited gametime last season, which earns him another go-around. Plays 1B as well.
• SS Taylor Macrae, 20 LHB: one of those no-prospects prospects who would have fit right in on the “Hitless Wonders”. On the Reserve Roster and will likely make a home there.
• SS Ben Pope, 21 RHB: the league’s #1 prospect, and with good reason. Yet to play a game but he will be in our lineup on OD. Most likely, but not 100% certainly, at SS. A gun on offence, more with gap than HR power, but will hit his share of dingers. Not elite defensively, but solid all the same.
• SS Ken Russell, 22 RHB: another OK player but only plays SS and for that will more than likely be moved on before too long.
• SS Juan Seda, 27 RHB: almost an identical player to Russell, with an almost identical fate.
• SS Travis Thompson: should develop into a solid enough ball player. More for next season than this.

OUTFIELDERS

• Tyler Franchi, 29 SHB: at this moment in time, our second-best position player. Expensive, though. He’s arb eligible and prices out just under $40k, making him our highest earner by a fair way. Mashed 27 last year and drove in 84, good enough for 3.4 WAR. A free swinger, he’s kind of an all-or-none bet with each AB. Dependable in LF, but would be poor in either CF or FR, thereby making the whole three-way with Macon and Ardila even tougher to solve.
• Phil Landoll, 38 SHB: will be one of the first players I shop around. Not because he’s terrible, but because he’s 38 and on $30k.
• Ryan Scott, 28 LHB: another 1B / LF but can also play RF fairly well, which might be the only thing that keeps him here.
• Tom Shellenberg, 33 LHB: his .253 / 14 HR 1952 was a bit of an outlier for him, a fact I might try to exploit before he goes back to creating more wind at the plate than a turbine farm.
• Kyle Grubb, 26 LHB: a definite keeper. Doesn’t hit for much average, but rattles them fences plenty. Will be our starting RF on Opening Day.
• Jonathan Stanford, 22 LHB: another keeper, will probably start him at CF and hopes he learns the pos more. Has been more of a corner man to this point. If we find a better option he’ll still be our OF4.
• Terry Ryan, 33 LHB: hasn’t been used much, getting just 87 PA in the two seasons he has been with the club. I’d keep him if he were 5 to 10 years younger, he’s not a bad player. But at almost 34 he’ll be shopped around at the earliest convenience.
• John Freshcorn, 28 RHB: plays all three OF spots well enough, and will probably start as our 5th outfielder.

So, yeah, we’ve got a surplus of middle infielders. Let’s hope they get us some pitching. Wait until you see this lot...

• STARTING PITCHERS

• Jake Hargis, 22 LHP: let’s start on a high. This guy is the real deal. Still probably a year or two away from full maturity, but he’ll be our ace.
• Chris Sienkiewicz, 26 RHP: did your ears just pop? Don’t be alarmed, that was just due to the vertiginous drop to the rest of our staff. Nominally our SP2, Chris is one of those 2 ½ pitch guys who always seem on the verge of disaster, and regularly encounter it. My goal is to have made him our SP5 by Opening Day.
• Brice Masterson, 26 RHP: was a grunt before he blew out his elbow and missed all of last season. Obviously, that R&R won’t have done him any favours. He’ll probably be kept on for warm-body duties but if I can replace him I will.
• Matt Battista, 32 RHP: Matt and his near-7 ERA will be pitching somewhere else in 1953.
• Joe Donovan, 25 RHP: I’m not sure why Joe did so poorly (2-3 / 7.87) last season. He looks like an OK pitcher and the word on him is that few players work harder. So he’ll get another run with us just to see what’s what.
• Jonathan Williamson, 21 RHP: one of our better prospects, and will prob work from the pen this season before hopefully coming on strong and moving into the rotation.
• Ray True, 26 RHP: reputation as clubhouse cancer reached my within hours of taking the job. So he’ll be gone ASAP. More like False, not True, in my books.

RELIEVERS

OK, so we have a bunch of these not worth the keystrokes of being listed individually. I’ll keep my comments to those worthy of them.

• Vince Goodall, 21 RHP: already our putative closer and still has a continent of improvement in him.
• Steve Reynolds, 22 RHP: a solid long-relief option who looks set to get as much work as his 81 innings last season, and perhaps more.
• Tom Lamb, 21 LHP: one of the few lefties on the staff, and far from a great one with an apparent allergy for the strike zone. If he can corral that and develop his changeup he’ll end up being handy enough.

Yup, that's it...

I don’t think I need to tell you this squad needs a fairly comprehensive rebuild. I’ll be back with an update once that’s been done, or at least begun. This could take a while.