The Gulf League - Fun in the Sun, South of the Border

[luckymann]

Being very constrained financially for now, we signed no extensions over the break. I hope to remedy that ASAP and have a fairly short list of core guys we want as cornerstones to build around.

We did sign pitcher Dolf Luque on a minors FA deal.

Our mix of players proved problematic off-field last year and we offload one of the problem guys in this trade, with Turkey clearly the focal point:

Fairly happy with the squad, although we are once again picked to come last.

Let's go get some!

[luckymann]

After we picked him up as a FA in the offseason, Dolf "The Pride of Havana" Luque's first GL go-around didn't go well, with him posting a 2-6 record and ugly 8.83 ERA over his 11 starts before we sent him home to Havana for a stint with our AAA Sugar Kings.

So far, it seems to be working.

[luckymann]

The 2002 All-Star Break sees our Conspiradores mired in last place at 40-49 and, if there's been any improvement on 2001, it has been only marginal.

Once again it is our pitching causing most of the damage, although our .310 BABIP tells me we've been unlucky as well.

Our young hitters continue to shine, however, with Shotime living up to his star billing already with nearly 4 WAR (5 if you combine it with his pitching) and Juanjo (302/424/528 slash with 17 homers and 54 RBI) advancing his claims as a truly elite hitter.

Fantastic news on that front, with Señor Soto signing on with us thru 2012. We also tie down Kiké Hernandez thru 2008 and Turkey Stearnes thru 2010.

That leaves only Elly de la Cruz and Shotime among our "cornerstone" players unsigned. Shohei is on the min again next year and that's when we'll sit him down to talk extension, will Elly is expensive and may be the one we can't afford to keep out of this nucleus. We'll see. Things are frustratingly tight, handicapping not only our ability to sign more guys but also to give some a run at the top flight, as we want to avoid unnecessarily starting clocks.

Not long until the Draft and we again expect to have among the first shots to fire. It will target an elite pitcher, and I'll give a full rundown shortly.

[luckymann]

A sharp but shallow player pool awaits us for the 2002 Gulf League Rookie Draft, with a few rippers there for Round 1 but a vertiginous drop in quality after that.

We get knocked about a bit in the Lottery, dropping from #2 to #6 but in the end it matters not as we get our guy and a handy relief arm in R2.

Here are the first two rounds plus supps and our picks in full:

We know fixing our pitching in this young league full of raw players is going to be tough in the short-term but we feel Leon will end up being added to the list of cornerstone players for our club.

He and Joakin will wile away the second half of 2002 at AAA Havana but we expect both will be with us at the QCs on OD 2003.

[luckymann]

Hopefully, a little glimpse into our club's future with this one...

[jasg224]

Nice draft for Querétaro! I'm excited to see Joakim Soria. He was the 2005 LMB Rookie of the Year. Soria also threw a perfect game in the 2006-07 LMP with Yaquis de Ciudad Obregón. The best Mexican reliever to pitch in the MLB!

You also drafted Chris Roberson who's a Sultanes de Monterrey and Águilas de Mexicali legend. In a 13 year career here, he played 7 Caribbean Series and hit for the cycle once.

Then there's Cesar Valdez who got drafted by the team he's most known for IRL. He had such a good year in 2019 (winning the Pitcher of the Year award) it extended his MLB career by 3 more years. He's also one of the best LIDOM pitchers in recent memory.

Those are the only names I recognize as LMB players (we don't talk about Osuna).

[luckymann]

Nice - appreciate the info bud!

Joakim will move into our Closer role next year. Will have to see if Robeson gets a run, he's a chance once some of the incumbent backups start getting expensive.

G

[luckymann]

I am always fascinated by the vagaries you can get when using dev only for historical players.

It more often than not causes consternation due to high quality players not coming in as expected or guys who were mainly SP IRL coming in with low stamina as relievers.

Occasionally, however, you get the reverse with a low-end guy in his historical guise coming into the game "hot".

As has happened in this universe to Keith Smith.

The proud owner of a career 207/261/306 slash and 0.3 total WAR (as per BBRef) over his three truncated MLB seasons, Keith's Gulf League avatar has received, shall I say, a somewhat generous re-rating. As a result, his time so far in the GL playing for Chihuahua has been very productive indeed.

We'll keep tabs on him and see if this continues over his full career in this timeline.

[luckymann]

A nice combined no-no for the Tigres against the Olmecas after starter Hunter Greene is forced to leave the game injured just two outs shy of doing it all himself.

[luckymann]

I am using the fabulous InteGREATed mod for all players in this save, which means the historical stats currently only run up to 2023.

Despite this fact and it resulting in him coming in with fairly modest ratings, Durango shortstop Masyn Winn is playing more like his IRL 2024 self and must be on the shortlist for RoY consideration this season.

After posting a decent enough 1.5 WAR season after being drafted 59th overall in the middle of last year, "Energizer Bunny" is currently slashing 336/416/521 with 14 HR, good for more than 3 WAR to this point.

That historical 2023 stat line is his only one in this timeline, so it will be very interesting to see how he fares from here with only the dev engine driving things. we'll keep a close eye on how that plays out.