We start off with an opening-day morning trade:
There's really been no place for Centeno since we acquired him for Nate Clark a few months back, and there wasn't even room for him on the final 26-man roster so he needed to be traded (theoretically, I could have optioned him to Durham but what's the point there?). So in return we get a pretty good player we also really don't need (Vasquez) and the #21 prospect in baseball in Champagne (yes, somehow we have two players with the last name Champagne, I'm going to pretend Steve & Mike are brothers). Morein is a soft tosser with control issues, so not really a prospect. Vasquez can rake:
He'll play 1B at Durham. Champagne has big-time power potential to go along with an elite batting eye, but contact is going to be an issue with him. This was the profile of Bo Angeac when we acquired him 5 years ago, but he eventually developed the hit tool and perhaps in a few years when Angeac is commanding a fortune in arbitration Champagne will follow his path and be ready to take over. Meanwhile it won't be fun to pitch to Centeno 18-19 times a year (starting as soon as tomorrow), this was the best offer we had for him.
Opening Day Roster:
C-Corpus, Quintana (Mike McKee deserves to play and I nearly dealt Corpus during the winter but I couldn't just yet. Definitely by next winter)
1B-J.Jimenez, de Jesus (we will have a Jon Jimenez/Omar Rodriguez platoon with de Jesus in the OF against righties and at 1B against lefties)
2B-Hardaway
SS-Widmar
3B-Angeac
IF-Gutierrez
OF-Jenkins, Ayala, O.Rodriguez, Buitrago
DH-V.Guerrero Jr.
SP-Aparicio, Schultz, Ortega, Soranno, Thompson
LR-Medina, Kerstetter
MR-Wherry, Hoyte, Sirna
SU-Bertone, Siqueiros
CL-Kawase
As usual there are lot of overqualified guys at Durham like McKee, Vasquez, Batchelder, Baez, Boesel, Roush, Hicks, Ron Adams.
Here are the preseason predictions. You'll notice I turned down the offense this year, last year was a bit too crazy. Given the Rays' hitting talent, this probably hurts them some, but I suppose they could use a bit of a handicap. One other change was to make the pitcher DL 10 days instead of 15, only 13 years behind MLB going back to this IRL. I will *never* adopt the stupid runner on 2nd in extra innings rule though.
The AL Central looks wide open yet mediocre.