One can, as always, deep dive at one’s leisure
HERE.
Well we certainly didn't plan for it to be as uneventful an offseason as it has turned out to be. In fact we quite aggressively looked to move a couple of high-profile guys but the returns being offered were such that they convinced us to commit to the status quo and have a serious go at repeating.
And so, the only addition to the squad other than the Draftees is a very small FA acquisition, signing Ron Brand on a 2+1/165 deal. He'll be Sangy's main backup at C and Spanky Kirkpatrick will now see more OF action than behind the dish, although he will still catch some innings. Ron also plays 3B and SS which really helps us with our shape. That means Paul Popovich will start the year at AAA. The only other changes of note from '71 are the promotion of Scoop Oliver into the everyday CF position at the expense of Bobby Tolan, who'll now be the 4th OF, and the flipping of the SS platoon to make Flea Patek the strong side and Gene Alley the weak. Gene's a Legacy and therefore can't be traded but is also cheap over the final three years of his contract and so we'll keep him either at the big club or AAA over that time.
Still a bit of tinkering to do with the BP with Terry Forster to come up at some point and we'll keep Gene Garber at Pittsburgh even though he's still raw just so as not to waste OYs unnecessarily. Dave Giusti (
gulp...) gets the Stopper role back but eventually it is Gossage's for the taking as it morphs into a Closer role.
We are thin in several areas and my trade tickets are ready to be deployed as needed should injuries hit, form desert, or both. I love the season after you win it all. The pressure is off and you can just be fearless, go with the flow and strip it all back to the bare essentials. Good for the soul, good for the franchise. A win-win!