Ahhh, what's that old adage about gods laughing while men make plans?
Let me begin from the start.
One thing I hadn't mentioned was that, along with my predecessor Ross Atkins, the managerial purge at our club had been quite extensive, including the manager.
After a fairly difficult process to find the right guy, we finally got him: Jon "JG" Garcia, who had piloted the Marlins over nine seasons to a 741-717 mark, pretty impressive given their financial constraints.
The rest of the pre-season has been frantic to say the least, with us having turned over a good portion of the playing group. I think we've put together a really strong squad for this level and that we should compete well in the season ahead. Most importantly, we have done so barely touching the purse strings, with our OD payroll sitting at just $21m, next-to lowest in the Basement. This means we should have plenty of firepower over the next few seasons to try and achieve a long upward trajectory, not the whippiness in performance that has been our bugbear in recent campaigns. A deal that offloaded Catcher Kyle Sorrels and his $4.5m salary to the Dodgers was a big factor.
And so, with all that in mind, we enter Spring Training primed for a big year.
Then in our very first game we lose Michael Kmet, who had fairly exploded with the bat in our intramural games and was locked in to be our everyday 1B. A broken hand means he will be out until July or August. A huge loss, but one we'll just have to deal with.
We begin ST slowly after that but recover to finish 7-5.
So here's our position player group as at OD along with the lineups and depth charts JG will be working from:
As I said, I think this is a strong group for this level. Decent speed throughout and, while Kmet's big bat will be missed, we've still got some sneaky pop with guys like Clough, Clarke and Leslie. Ramirez might take a while to acclimatise, but his sweet swing should make him a fixture at 2 or 3, although JG has him leading off against lefties to begin with.
And here is our staff:
A fairly workmanlike bunch of starters just at the moment, but we feel confident they'll improve from there. I'm keeping Gerard Thomas down at AAA to begin with. At just 19, I don't want to rush him.
Personality-wise, we are looking good, with the group seeming to have gelled nicely and a good core leadership group headed by Carl Armstrong and Bill Jester in place to keep it that way.
The boss has gone pretty easy on me with regard to demands for my rookie season, asking only that we perform well.
With regard to our prospects, we are looking really good with our system the top-ranked and a bunch of highly-rated guys:
We like us, then, but what about those in the know? Not quite so keen I'm afraid, picking us in mid-standings with a slightly losing record. Unsurprisingly, they see pitching as our weak spot, expecting us to post an ERA above 4. That's alright, I prefer it that way. Lowered expectations keep young feet on the ground.
Back at the halfway point for an update other than news of vital importance, which I'll report as it comes to hand.