[Biggp07]

March 14th – Day 8

Hitting coaches B.J. Roper-Hubbert and Zack Jones have both accepted their contract offers. I also decided to up the development budget to the minimum league baseline of 13.5 MIL, but going to delay any increase of scouting until a response from Juan Centeno.
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March 16th – Day 10

Juan Centeno favors our offer for a minor league contract, so good things are happening leading up to opening day. Our scout called from Palau confident that he had turned up a prospect in 16-year-old left fielder Salesi Kuupauolealoha, and he’s been assigned to the international complex. Instead of increasing the scouting budget since Jason seems to be finding international talent well, I put about another 1.5 million into our draft budget.
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March 17th – Day 11

Juan Centeno signed his minor league offer today, so I can now work on line-ups, depth charts, and pitching staff and bullpen with opening day only 3 days away, it’s about to get real for me!

After asking Paul Hoover to give me his first thoughts on lineups since he's got good defensive coaching sense, I structured the new lineups, giving weight to playing Salvy more at first base to relieve stress on his knees and allow Juan Centro to get some play at catcher. I had committed to him in free agency only a few days ago, so I had to try and make it work. Fingers crossed. I realized M.J. Melendez had some decent development at catcher, so that helped alleviate some stress for how and who I was going to play at that position when it started getting bumpy.


So, for right-handed and DH, Salvy would catch with Juan Centero backing him up and M.J. as a third backup. I might try to rotate him every 20 games or so. Nick Pratto on first, Adam Frazier on second, Mikail Garcia on third, and Bobby in short. Drew Waters, Darion Blanco, and Hunter Renfroe in left, center, and right, respectively, and Vinny is DH.

Against lefties, Salvy will move to first base with Juan Centero replacing him at catcher and Mike Brosseau replacing Adam Frazier at second base. I’m trying my best to get L/R hitters against opposing pitchers to gain every bit of advantage I can. And there’s depth where it needs to be, or called up if necessary.


I set up the pitching rotation and bullpen, giving Seth Lugo the starting position, followed by Cole Ragans in the 2 spot, Mike Wacha 3rd, Brady Singer 4th, and Matt Sauer last in the rotation. I’m not sure how Matt Sauer, our Rule 5 pick from the Yankees last December, will turn out, but he gets a back-end starting rotation bid to start the season.


As far as the bullpen goes, Will Smith will be our closer, Chris Stratton and Nick Anderson our set-up men, John Schrieber and John McMillon providing middle relief, Luis Cessa and Jordan Lyles as long relievers and starters in a pinch, and Angel Zerpa is our left-handed specialist. I expect some challenge with Jordan Lyles as he seems self-centered and selfish, doesn’t have the exceptional ability to be getting paid like he is, and he’s not giving back leadership to the team. But he wants every bit of his paycheck at 8.5 million! I expect better from guys his age and tenure in the league, so he’s on a short lease with me. He’s a free agent this year, so we’ll see how things go. We’ve got reliever Josh Taylor coming off the IL in about 6 days for bicep soreness, but I think his injury may need more time to heal. He had 16 relief appearances for us last year and did not perform well, which creates a decision for me even before we play our first regular season game. Most other IL listees are at least a month from returning, and most will be sent for minor rehab unless the situation dictates otherwise.
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