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DD Martin · 02-20-2026, 01:26 PM

As the free agency period starts, we will run down the team that we have returning quickly.

Catcher -
Juan Duran (age 25 B-R) It’s time for the 25 year old Duran to break out. He has been up and down in previous seasons and last season when we fell behind in the standings, Duran was hitting 216. So we sent him down to 1.) have him remember how to hit and 2.) and less publicized, gain more control on his service time. At AAA he hit 310. It’s now time for him to be the catcher that everyone thought he would be.

We have Don Hill who came up late last year, but ideally we could re-sign lefty hitting C Guo-quiang Lee who hit 349 when he came up to replace Duran. Since we can’t offer anything more than the limit, we will have to wait to sign Lee to see if we can coax him in for the league minimum. This would allow Hill a full season at AAA to continue to develop.

Infield -

Our infield is pretty set. With the combination of 1B Reagan Osborn and 3B Travis Arnaud at the corners and 2B John Lambert who had a breakout season last year and mid-season acquisition SS Kennelly Mulford. We have one of the better hitting infields in the league and a group that defends well.

The backup group loses IF Kent Noseworthy who could play all positions although untested at 1B. SS/2B Pedro Farrulla who is a slick fielding not hit player will be back. 2B/3B Larry Davis will also likely get a spot on the bench as well.

I could see us again looking for a veteran on a league minimum deal and preferably a left handed bat. Not sure if we will find anyone in that group but I do have my eye on someone that we tried to acquire several years ago. While I am glad we didn’t pull the trigger then on that deal, because it would have stunted the growth likely of John Lambert. If we could get him now on a minimum deal that could be a plus for his bat, but not his glove.

Outfield

The outfield has a lot of candidates and as starters is pretty set in LF and CF. Now back to back player of the year (Canada in 55 and US with us last season) Robert LeRoy is back in LF. In CF we will have the ever improving Cris Luna who’s bat seems to finally be ready to hit at the big league level and covers a lot of ground in CF. We will have competition in RF this spring as we have Tom Stone who last year came out like a house on fire to start the season, but then cooled off. Still Stone hit 305 as a rookie and had a 793 OPS as a 22-year old. He gave up some playing time to waiver acquisition Joe Justice (now 26) who hit 269 but hit 11 home runs and 40 RBI’s in 223 at-bats and had an OPS of 856. They are both looking for PT in RF for the upcoming season.

DH/RF sees the return of Jose Aranda who is a lefty hitter with tremendous power but has battled injuries in his 2 seasons with the Architects. Aranda only hit 215 last season with a 690 OPS with 10 home runs and 31 RBI’s but spent 2 long periods on the DL. We brought up 1B/corner OF Marc Nakayama who really caught our attention early and still wound with a 793 OPS with 7 home runs and 29 RBI’s in 170 at-bats. Aranda is a lefty and Nakayama is a righty so I see them sharing time at DH with Nakayama being more of the guy who would play in the field.

After that it will basically be having a backup CF between rookie John Ross (25) and Steve Hickman (26). Ross is a lefty and has tremendous leadership which is a bonus. They likely will be battling over 1 spot. Joe Justice is also a very capable CF so there is a scenario that neither Ross or Hickman make the club.

We could look for a popular veteran bench bat for the league minimum in free agency.

Pitching

Obviously I’ve whined enough about the early retirement of Jose Cedeno, which can be seen as a curse or maybe a financial blessing. We still have a strong rotation I believe with the offense we have. While we are still mulling the decision on Motoyuki Inoue and whether to trade him or not, this is who would be our starting 5 if we keep him.

Starting Rotation as of February 1st 2057

RHSP Motoyuki Inoue (15-12 3.75 ERA)
RHSP John Moore (10-4 3.23 ERA)
LHSP Curt Hopkins (11-3 2.91 ERA in AAA and 1-1 3.48 in the big leagues)
RHSP Val Imbert (10-6 4.45 ERA)
RHSP Yale Hulburt (8-6 5.98ERA)

I still feel good about this group and think we can contend next season. Whatever magic Duluth had last year, they were a club that played well together and they have budget room to improve on that team. They are probably the favorites, but 2nd place Toledo has financial issues like we do, although not as bad, and has great pitching. They will lose their star 3B Luis Gonzalez during free agency because they have no room to bid on him. Toledo has tremendous pitching on their side and we lost Cedeno. Detroit, Traverse City will have to make moves to be a factor. Milwaukee has too many holes and appears content to gather #1 draft picks.

If we did move Inoue, depending on the deal we could get a pitcher back if we clear our budgetary issues in either a trade or in free agency. But we have a good amount of talent on the pitching side in our system. They are not likely ready yet, but I can’t see gong more than a year on anyone pitcher. The pitcher who would step into the rotation if we move Inoue would be Joe Johnson. Johnson excelled as a RP last season picking up the slack for setup man Larry Stott (more on that later). Johnson pitched to a 3.75 ERA last season and was below 3 as a RP (a couple of his early starts during the season were not good). In previous two seasons Johnson was 22- 8 with an ERA around 3.95. So he is more than capable of hanging in the rotation.

Bullpen

The bullpen is the biggest worry on the team honestly. But not our closer.

Closer Pat Wright has set the Architect club record with saves with 173 and he is poised to go over 200 during the upcoming season.

Primary setup man Larry Stott who in 2055 had and ERA in his last 44 outings that had a 0.98 ERA in those games, blew up last season after signing a contract extension. Stott’s ERA blew up to 6.50 last season and was a huge contributing factor to Chicago’s terrible record in 1-run games. The front office has faith that Stott will bounce back.

If Joe Johnson is not in the rotation he will either be the 2nd setup man or more likely the top middle RP we use.

After that there are positions to be won in the bullpen. If we can’t trade Bill Lutz and his $8.5 million contract (or DFA and let someone else take a chance) he will be the long man in the pen. Lutz has actually pitched well in relief the last couple of season, but has struggled as a starter with his control.

That leaves 3 more spots in the pen. Several internal candidates are LHRP David Butler who has performed well at AAA and was a late season call up. I like that he is a lefty and that will give him a leg up on others. We also could see AAA RP Joe Hoskin (2.84 ERA at AAA) and Richard Heshel (4.33 AAA 4.18 in 47IP with the big league club) in the mix.

This will be an area where we will likely look for some veteran minimum guys to support what is the biggest concern we have, and we don’t have money to fix it.

So free agency will likely not be very exciting for us this season.

Here are the Canadian Award winners from last season that I forgot to post.

Rookie of the Year

The top-rated rookie for 2056 in the Canadian has been selected and the honor went to Kingston center fielder Bill Arnold.

It was a season to remember for the 25-year-old Comets newcomer. He wrapped up his first year with a .331 batting average, 24 doubles, 2 triples and 19 home runs. Arnold also had 79 RBIs and scored 85 times.

Don Woolsey of the Kingston Comets finished second in voting, while Talbot Bergeron of the Toronto Maples finished third.

Player of the Year

Thunder Bay's Jamal Amador put the wraps on a fine campaign today by winning the 2056 Canadian Lake Superior Player Award.

The 33-year-old veteran scorched the opposition with a .333 average, picking up 171 hits, 33 doubles, 4 triples, 37 home runs and 91 RBIs, while scoring 99 runs.

Li-ping Chin of the Hamilton Mounties finished second in voting, while Johnny Peterson of the Kingston Comets finished third.

Pitcher of the Year

With speculation about his retirement gaining steam last offseason, Mounties ace Yakumo Hasegawa had something to prove. He proved it in award-winning style as he accepted the Canadian Lake Michigan POY Award today.

The veteran Hamilton hurler posted a record of 15 wins and 5 losses this year with a 3.66 ERA. In 31 starts he struck out 203 and walked 44 in 218.2 innings.

Sean Moore of the Hamilton Mounties finished second in voting, while Roland Fuller of the Kingston Comets finished third.

Top Fireman of the Year

2056 was a year to remember for Roberto Terraza.

The Thunder Bay Caribou closer was the owner of a 3.25 ERA this season over 130 innings of work. He made 90 relief appearances and had 5 saves, 147 strikeouts, 22 walks and a record of 9 wins and 5 losses.

He's also now got some hardware, as the 33-year-old has been named the Canadian Lake Ontario Relief Award winner.

"It's something I can tell my grandchildren some day, pretty special," he said.

Emmett Dodman of the Thunder Bay Caribou finished second in voting, while Wally Howard of the Hamilton Mounties finished third.

Flashing the Leather Canada Award Winners

Any pitcher would love to have these defenders on the field backing them up. They are the best glovemen in the Canadian for 2056. This year's Flashing Leather Award winners are:

Pitcher
Cliff Simpson (Thunder Bay Caribou)

Catcher
Thomas Gilles (Thunder Bay Caribou)

First Baseman
Gerald Powers (Thunder Bay Caribou)

Second Baseman
Li-ping Chin (Hamilton Mounties)

Third Baseman
Steve Taylor (Toronto Maples)

Shortstop
R.C. Burt (Hamilton Mounties)

Left Fielder
Terry Foster (Hamilton Mounties)

Center Fielder
David Williams (Windsor Vigilantes)

Right Fielder
Emerson Coleman (Thunder Bay Caribou)

Top Canadian positional hitters

This group of hitters were players that Canadian pitchers didn't want to see digging into the box in 2056. They are the winners of the Lake Erie Bat Award, which goes to the top offensive performers at each position.

Here are the 2056 winners:

Catcher
Prímio Lebrim (Owen Sound Waveriders)
.278/.353/.474, 428 AB, 21 HR, 2 SB, 113 wRC+, 1.7 WAR

First Baseman
Craig Hargrove (Windsor Vigilantes)
.317/.386/.536, 549 AB, 29 HR, 2 SB, 136 wRC+, 2.8 WAR

Second Baseman
Ron Watkins (Owen Sound Waveriders)
.342/.425/.502, 444 AB, 10 HR, 16 SB, 144 wRC+, 5.0 WAR

Third Baseman
Chris Allen (Windsor Vigilantes)
.269/.337/.465, 480 AB, 21 HR, 18 SB, 101 wRC+, 1.9 WAR

Shortstop
Carlos Pérez (Kingston Comets)
.287/.330/.549, 317 AB, 22 HR, 113 wRC+, 1.1 WAR

Left Fielder
Jamal Amador (Thunder Bay Caribou)
.333/.410/.630, 513 AB, 37 HR, 155 wRC+, 4.5 WAR

Center Fielder
Robinson González (Thunder Bay Caribou)
.286/.354/.516, 539 AB, 30 HR, 116 wRC+, 1.3 WAR

Right Fielder
Bill Arnold (Kingston Comets)
.331/.384/.487, 544 AB, 19 HR, 1 SB, 127 wRC+, 4.0 WAR

Designated Hitter
Glen Dickie (Hamilton Mounties)
.316/.416/.531, 507 AB, 25 HR, 2 SB, 140 wRC+, 3.5 WAR

02-20-2026, 01:26 PM	#89
DD Martin All Star Starter Join Date: Feb 2014 Location: Seattle area Posts: 1,028	As the free agency period starts, we will run down the team that we have returning quickly. Catcher - Juan Duran (age 25 B-R) It’s time for the 25 year old Duran to break out. He has been up and down in previous seasons and last season when we fell behind in the standings, Duran was hitting 216. So we sent him down to 1.) have him remember how to hit and 2.) and less publicized, gain more control on his service time. At AAA he hit 310. It’s now time for him to be the catcher that everyone thought he would be. We have Don Hill who came up late last year, but ideally we could re-sign lefty hitting C Guo-quiang Lee who hit 349 when he came up to replace Duran. Since we can’t offer anything more than the limit, we will have to wait to sign Lee to see if we can coax him in for the league minimum. This would allow Hill a full season at AAA to continue to develop. Infield - Our infield is pretty set. With the combination of 1B Reagan Osborn and 3B Travis Arnaud at the corners and 2B John Lambert who had a breakout season last year and mid-season acquisition SS Kennelly Mulford. We have one of the better hitting infields in the league and a group that defends well. The backup group loses IF Kent Noseworthy who could play all positions although untested at 1B. SS/2B Pedro Farrulla who is a slick fielding not hit player will be back. 2B/3B Larry Davis will also likely get a spot on the bench as well. I could see us again looking for a veteran on a league minimum deal and preferably a left handed bat. Not sure if we will find anyone in that group but I do have my eye on someone that we tried to acquire several years ago. While I am glad we didn’t pull the trigger then on that deal, because it would have stunted the growth likely of John Lambert. If we could get him now on a minimum deal that could be a plus for his bat, but not his glove. Outfield The outfield has a lot of candidates and as starters is pretty set in LF and CF. Now back to back player of the year (Canada in 55 and US with us last season) Robert LeRoy is back in LF. In CF we will have the ever improving Cris Luna who’s bat seems to finally be ready to hit at the big league level and covers a lot of ground in CF. We will have competition in RF this spring as we have Tom Stone who last year came out like a house on fire to start the season, but then cooled off. Still Stone hit 305 as a rookie and had a 793 OPS as a 22-year old. He gave up some playing time to waiver acquisition Joe Justice (now 26) who hit 269 but hit 11 home runs and 40 RBI’s in 223 at-bats and had an OPS of 856. They are both looking for PT in RF for the upcoming season. DH/RF sees the return of Jose Aranda who is a lefty hitter with tremendous power but has battled injuries in his 2 seasons with the Architects. Aranda only hit 215 last season with a 690 OPS with 10 home runs and 31 RBI’s but spent 2 long periods on the DL. We brought up 1B/corner OF Marc Nakayama who really caught our attention early and still wound with a 793 OPS with 7 home runs and 29 RBI’s in 170 at-bats. Aranda is a lefty and Nakayama is a righty so I see them sharing time at DH with Nakayama being more of the guy who would play in the field. After that it will basically be having a backup CF between rookie John Ross (25) and Steve Hickman (26). Ross is a lefty and has tremendous leadership which is a bonus. They likely will be battling over 1 spot. Joe Justice is also a very capable CF so there is a scenario that neither Ross or Hickman make the club. We could look for a popular veteran bench bat for the league minimum in free agency. Pitching Obviously I’ve whined enough about the early retirement of Jose Cedeno, which can be seen as a curse or maybe a financial blessing. We still have a strong rotation I believe with the offense we have. While we are still mulling the decision on Motoyuki Inoue and whether to trade him or not, this is who would be our starting 5 if we keep him. Starting Rotation as of February 1st 2057 RHSP Motoyuki Inoue (15-12 3.75 ERA) RHSP John Moore (10-4 3.23 ERA) LHSP Curt Hopkins (11-3 2.91 ERA in AAA and 1-1 3.48 in the big leagues) RHSP Val Imbert (10-6 4.45 ERA) RHSP Yale Hulburt (8-6 5.98ERA) I still feel good about this group and think we can contend next season. Whatever magic Duluth had last year, they were a club that played well together and they have budget room to improve on that team. They are probably the favorites, but 2nd place Toledo has financial issues like we do, although not as bad, and has great pitching. They will lose their star 3B Luis Gonzalez during free agency because they have no room to bid on him. Toledo has tremendous pitching on their side and we lost Cedeno. Detroit, Traverse City will have to make moves to be a factor. Milwaukee has too many holes and appears content to gather #1 draft picks. If we did move Inoue, depending on the deal we could get a pitcher back if we clear our budgetary issues in either a trade or in free agency. But we have a good amount of talent on the pitching side in our system. They are not likely ready yet, but I can’t see gong more than a year on anyone pitcher. The pitcher who would step into the rotation if we move Inoue would be Joe Johnson. Johnson excelled as a RP last season picking up the slack for setup man Larry Stott (more on that later). Johnson pitched to a 3.75 ERA last season and was below 3 as a RP (a couple of his early starts during the season were not good). In previous two seasons Johnson was 22- 8 with an ERA around 3.95. So he is more than capable of hanging in the rotation. Bullpen The bullpen is the biggest worry on the team honestly. But not our closer. Closer Pat Wright has set the Architect club record with saves with 173 and he is poised to go over 200 during the upcoming season. Primary setup man Larry Stott who in 2055 had and ERA in his last 44 outings that had a 0.98 ERA in those games, blew up last season after signing a contract extension. Stott’s ERA blew up to 6.50 last season and was a huge contributing factor to Chicago’s terrible record in 1-run games. The front office has faith that Stott will bounce back. If Joe Johnson is not in the rotation he will either be the 2nd setup man or more likely the top middle RP we use. After that there are positions to be won in the bullpen. If we can’t trade Bill Lutz and his $8.5 million contract (or DFA and let someone else take a chance) he will be the long man in the pen. Lutz has actually pitched well in relief the last couple of season, but has struggled as a starter with his control. That leaves 3 more spots in the pen. Several internal candidates are LHRP David Butler who has performed well at AAA and was a late season call up. I like that he is a lefty and that will give him a leg up on others. We also could see AAA RP Joe Hoskin (2.84 ERA at AAA) and Richard Heshel (4.33 AAA 4.18 in 47IP with the big league club) in the mix. This will be an area where we will likely look for some veteran minimum guys to support what is the biggest concern we have, and we don’t have money to fix it. So free agency will likely not be very exciting for us this season. Here are the Canadian Award winners from last season that I forgot to post. Rookie of the Year The top-rated rookie for 2056 in the Canadian has been selected and the honor went to Kingston center fielder Bill Arnold. It was a season to remember for the 25-year-old Comets newcomer. He wrapped up his first year with a .331 batting average, 24 doubles, 2 triples and 19 home runs. Arnold also had 79 RBIs and scored 85 times. Don Woolsey of the Kingston Comets finished second in voting, while Talbot Bergeron of the Toronto Maples finished third. Player of the Year Thunder Bay's Jamal Amador put the wraps on a fine campaign today by winning the 2056 Canadian Lake Superior Player Award. The 33-year-old veteran scorched the opposition with a .333 average, picking up 171 hits, 33 doubles, 4 triples, 37 home runs and 91 RBIs, while scoring 99 runs. Li-ping Chin of the Hamilton Mounties finished second in voting, while Johnny Peterson of the Kingston Comets finished third. Pitcher of the Year With speculation about his retirement gaining steam last offseason, Mounties ace Yakumo Hasegawa had something to prove. He proved it in award-winning style as he accepted the Canadian Lake Michigan POY Award today. The veteran Hamilton hurler posted a record of 15 wins and 5 losses this year with a 3.66 ERA. In 31 starts he struck out 203 and walked 44 in 218.2 innings. Sean Moore of the Hamilton Mounties finished second in voting, while Roland Fuller of the Kingston Comets finished third. Top Fireman of the Year 2056 was a year to remember for Roberto Terraza. The Thunder Bay Caribou closer was the owner of a 3.25 ERA this season over 130 innings of work. He made 90 relief appearances and had 5 saves, 147 strikeouts, 22 walks and a record of 9 wins and 5 losses. He's also now got some hardware, as the 33-year-old has been named the Canadian Lake Ontario Relief Award winner. "It's something I can tell my grandchildren some day, pretty special," he said. Emmett Dodman of the Thunder Bay Caribou finished second in voting, while Wally Howard of the Hamilton Mounties finished third. Flashing the Leather Canada Award Winners Any pitcher would love to have these defenders on the field backing them up. They are the best glovemen in the Canadian for 2056. This year's Flashing Leather Award winners are: Pitcher Cliff Simpson (Thunder Bay Caribou) Catcher Thomas Gilles (Thunder Bay Caribou) First Baseman Gerald Powers (Thunder Bay Caribou) Second Baseman Li-ping Chin (Hamilton Mounties) Third Baseman Steve Taylor (Toronto Maples) Shortstop R.C. Burt (Hamilton Mounties) Left Fielder Terry Foster (Hamilton Mounties) Center Fielder David Williams (Windsor Vigilantes) Right Fielder Emerson Coleman (Thunder Bay Caribou) Top Canadian positional hitters This group of hitters were players that Canadian pitchers didn't want to see digging into the box in 2056. They are the winners of the Lake Erie Bat Award, which goes to the top offensive performers at each position. Here are the 2056 winners: Catcher Prímio Lebrim (Owen Sound Waveriders) .278/.353/.474, 428 AB, 21 HR, 2 SB, 113 wRC+, 1.7 WAR First Baseman Craig Hargrove (Windsor Vigilantes) .317/.386/.536, 549 AB, 29 HR, 2 SB, 136 wRC+, 2.8 WAR Second Baseman Ron Watkins (Owen Sound Waveriders) .342/.425/.502, 444 AB, 10 HR, 16 SB, 144 wRC+, 5.0 WAR Third Baseman Chris Allen (Windsor Vigilantes) .269/.337/.465, 480 AB, 21 HR, 18 SB, 101 wRC+, 1.9 WAR Shortstop Carlos Pérez (Kingston Comets) .287/.330/.549, 317 AB, 22 HR, 113 wRC+, 1.1 WAR Left Fielder Jamal Amador (Thunder Bay Caribou) .333/.410/.630, 513 AB, 37 HR, 155 wRC+, 4.5 WAR Center Fielder Robinson González (Thunder Bay Caribou) .286/.354/.516, 539 AB, 30 HR, 116 wRC+, 1.3 WAR Right Fielder Bill Arnold (Kingston Comets) .331/.384/.487, 544 AB, 19 HR, 1 SB, 127 wRC+, 4.0 WAR Designated Hitter Glen Dickie (Hamilton Mounties) .316/.416/.531, 507 AB, 25 HR, 2 SB, 140 wRC+, 3.5 WAR