OOPS I did it again

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GAME 3
Crazy game bouncing back and forth. Guinn H (5) 2.2 IP H BB K

• Mendoza perfect 9th K
• Garcia 2H 2 SB (4) 2R
• Brumfield 2H HR (5) 3 RBI (9)
• Nieves HR (3) 2R 2 RBI (11)
• Stachowski 3-3 HR (1) BB 2R 2 RBI (4)
• Dames 2H 3B RBI (12)
• Bush (W) 5.1 IP 7 H 4 BB 0 K 6R 5 ER

Chicago leads the series 2-1

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GAME 4

• 4 doubles and a HR in the 5th ended this one.
• Morris (W) 7.2 IP 6 H 4 K 2 ER
• Mendoza 0.2 IP SV (8)
• Garcia 2H HR (9) SB (5) R BB 2 RBI (19)
• Brumfield HR (6) RBI (10)

Chicago leads the series 3-1

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GAME 5

• Held to 2 hits, 2B by Stachowski and a solo shot by McLain (1)
• Merera (L) 6 IP 4 H 4 K 4 BB 3 ER
• Jaje (W) 7 IP 2 H 7 K 2 ER
• Schott 2 IP 2 K SV (7)

Chicago leads the series 3-2

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...............

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SERIES MVP- Bill Brumfield .292/.346/.750 3 HR 5 RBI

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MINOR LEAGUE AWARDS

• Sergio Zapata (P), Gil Ermatinger (C ), and Andy Alvarado (2B) won AA Gold Gloves.
• AA RP Jamie Bowden, our 3rd round pick this year, took home RP of the year after going 3-2 30 SV 1.41 ERA with 54 K's and 13 BB in 38.1 IP
• Catcher Gil Ermatinger (.280/.346/.504 22 HR), 1B Travis Rowell (.308/.381/.443 10 HR), 2B Andt Alvarado (.301/.366/.520 23 HR 22 SB), 3B Adam Brigham (.309/.379/.514 17 HR), and LF Jaden Brown (.312/.413/.445 6 HR) all took home AA Silver Slugger awards.
• Andy Alvarado swept the vote in winning the AA MVP award. He hit .301/.366/.520 23 HR 22 SB 83 RBI's 88R and 37 2B. Gil Ermatinger finished 3rd in the voting
• CF Kevin Dietz won the AAA Gold Glove at CF
• AAA Catcher Troy Zehnder (.272/.368/.405 14 HR), 3B Andy Williams (.254/.314/.503 30 HR) RF Matt Chiquete (.318/.360/.507 19 HR) took home Silver Slugger awards.
• Albuquerque captured a league record 4 gold gloves. P Blake Reynolds, C Dean Hahn, 1B Mike Johnson and 3B Jake Pena.
• At Rookie league Minneapolis 1B Dan Mejia, and RF Danny Reyes won gold gloves.
• Albuquerque had 4 silver slugers: 2B Josh Logan (.270/.350/.474 21 HR), 3B Jake Pena (.284/.359/.465 18 HR), CF Jonathan Vittone (.302/.374/.437 11 HR), and RF Johnny Blackwell (.240/.322/.438 28 HR)
• Short Season SP Mario Correa, who I almost traded in 2 separate deals this year, took home Pitcher of the year for his 5-4 1.88 season. In 11 starts and 86 IP he fanned 91. Teammate and 1st round pick this year Mike Harper finished 3rd in the voting. Correa was an Int. FA signing and is just 20.
• 3B Jake Pena (.284-18-57) took home Class A POTY while teammate Johnathan Vittone was runner up in the vote.
• IF Larry Hileman hit .303/.372/.504 12 HR to win the Silver Slugger at Short Season Nashville.

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2014 AWARD WINNERS
HANK AARON AWARD (MVP)
AL- Carlo Ambrogi 1B (WYO) .372-36-116
NL- Gus Garcia 2B (CIP) .346-37-105

SANDY KOUFAX AWARD
AL- Travis Hilly (CLE) 22-9 3.39
NL- Juan Laurel (SD) 22-8 2.65 (his 3rd)

JACKIE ROBINSON AWARD
AL- Andrew King RF (UT) .318-13-64
NL- Chris Nicholson 2B (IND) .293-42-109

MARIANO RIVERA AWARD (Best Reliever)
AL- Paul Schott (UT) 6-9 42 SV 1.82
NL- Mario Mendoza (CIP) 2-0 39 SV 1.67

TRAVOR HOFFMAN AWARD
(Best Rolaids total)
AL- Joseph Grosch (SI) 8-10 43 SV 2.67
NL- Mario Mendoza (CIP) 2-0 39 SV 1.67

GOLD GLOVE AWARDS
Joe McLain won the GG at 1B

SILVER SLUGGER AWARDS
Gus Garcia (3B) and Rico Guzman (CF) took home SS awards

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SHOCKING NEWS OUT OF CHICAGO
A day after posting their first World Series title, Manager Sean Spicer informed the club that he would be retiring, effective immediately. GM Curt Schilling deferred comment, stating, “Right now it's time to celebrate what they achieved, what he achieved, and thank him for his incredible leadership.”
Owner Anthony Johns was said to be irate at his GM for being 'caught off guard' as one source put it.

BACKROOM CHATTER
Had no idea. Totally blindsided. Not the thing you expect a manager to chat about prior to jumping on the floats for the WS Parade.
Oh well, next man up. My initial idea and I am acting on it today, is to extend an offer to Boston Manager Jose Vargas who just finished up his contract in Boston. I fully expect them to retain him, or try to, but he is everything we want in a manager.

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HIRINGS & FIRINGS

• Brooklyn- Fired GM Dennis Kinzey after 6 years and a 72-90 season
• Portland- Fired GM Jonathan Pressman after 4 seasons.
• San Jose- Fired legendary Manager Barry Ruedas after their 3rd straight sub 80 win season and 4th losing season in his 5 years. The 2001 Manager of the Year with Denver is 68 years old and has spent the last 22 years in the IBL
• Charlotte- Fired GM Matt Carraway after 4 seasons and an 82-80 2014.
• Pittsburgh- After making the playoffs in their inaugural season Pittsburgh went 207-2790 with 66, 72, and 69 win campaigns. That cost GM Rodolfo Valdez his job today.
• Indianapolis- Fired GM Calvin Tritt after just 4 years.
• El Paso- After missing the post-season for the first time in 7 years El Paso fired Manager Jimmy Shoaf. Shoaf was the NL Manager of the year in 2008 and 2009.
• Atlanta- Fired manager Mario Garcia

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CHICAGO IRON PIGS BUSINESS


OWNERS MEETING

• Mr Johns was clearly all smiles at our annual year end meeting. He asked who I'd picked to design the rings (Roberts, Mendoza) and he also tabled a 4-year extension, which I signed on the spot.
• He was still reeling from Sean Spicer's atom bomb but I quickly assured him that while Sean was a legend, the makeup of this club was not dependent on the “right guy” managing them. They are deep and talented and we've created an atmosphere where almost every player gets the “name on the front” being more important than the name on the back.
• Then I got news I was not expecting.
• He has decided to raise our budget from 70 to 95 million dollars! Given our expenses that could allow us the highest payroll in the game.
• We won't need it, but we will be maximizing our spend on player development. He's still very unhappy about our lack of success in the Int. FA pool.
• I'd asked both he and the finance team if we could hold back on raising ticket prices. The increase last year saw our attendance drop a bit (3.83m to 3.71m) while our revenue per game increased. He made, and God bless him for making it, over 42 million dollars. Which means in my time here he has had access to over 165 million in profits.
• Tip of the cap to him as he has re-invested a large amount back into the baseball operations. As I sit here post-meeting we have a 95 million dollar budget, 2nd in the game, and a 67.79 million dollar payroll, also second in the game.
• We have the league MVP signed to what now appears to be highway robbery, a deal through 2020 with a 2021 player option, of 11.2 million. For the next 6 seasons he will have an AAV of just under 8 million per year. Worth every penny x 10.
• The only two players not retained beyond this year are backup catcher Dan Milazzo and SP Mike Perez. Both are likely going to be allowed to walk as we brought in Skyler Huson to be Stachowski's backup for the next few years and we feel, even though Perez ask was miniscule in the scheme of things, we would have better, younger options in the rotation, and again with that budget we could go out and sign a big ticket free agent.

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FINANCES

• We generated 115+ million in revenue last year with a 59 million dollar payroll. This new spend is headed to player development with our scouting budget going from 1.34 million to the league maximum of 7.32 million. We are at the cap on the Dev budget of 5 million, have 2.2 million slotted for the draft and capped at 1.55 million for Int FA.
• We sold 19,630 season tickets last year and I am interested to see how that number changes with no ticket price change and a world series title under our belt.

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CONTRACTS

• We have two players headed into their final contract years. SS Mark Calkins at 8.2 million and fan favorite Jesse Roberts at 6.3 million. Calkins is 33 and I have little interest in bringing him back. Dan Ames and Derek Dames are both younger better defending and potentially better offensive options.
• Roberts is another story altogether.
• There's no scenario I envision where he walks. I'd be out the next day and my house destroyed by fans from the “Pig Pen”.
• He's a bit of a 'tweener” talent wise. Not going to win a batting title, nor a HR title, nor a SB title. He hit .284/.335/.452 with 27 2B 16 HR and was 33-42 in SB. A 6 or 7 hitter on a great team.
• His career slash line of .261/.316/.457 he has outdone in 3 of 4 seasons since we started here.
• Preliminary contract talks has him looking for 5-6 years at an AAV of 5.3, and that's absolutely doable. I'd prefer to max it at 5 honestly, but there's room to work here.

ARBITRATION

• Rick McKitrick (6-6 3.00 1.19 WHIP) has an estimate of 1.2. I'll try to get a deal done if possible but the ask isn't crazy.
• Skyler Huson was brought in to backup Stachowski and his estimate is 1.2 as well.
• Juan Chavez estimate is 1.734 after a somewhat down season (.235/.312/.359) but he played far less than he has in the past.
• I will not be tendering a QO to Dan Milazzo (8.2 million this year)

Well, we went 0-3.

1. McKitrick wins, receiving 1.302 million
2. Huson wins, receiving 1.5 million
3. Chavez wins and gets 1.91 million.

Prior to free agency our payroll now sits at 69.2 million, 2nd in the league '

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11/11/14
CHICAGO SIGNS JOSE VARGAS TO HELM THE CLUB
While the league was not looking the Chicago Iron Pigs stepped in and signed former Boston Colonial manager Jose Vargas to a 5 year 3.1 million dollar contract. The two-time AL Manager of the Year (2011, 2013) and two-time World Champion (2011, 2013) was said to be entranced at the opportunity to step into a club that looks prepared to compete for titles for the foreseeable future.
“They were aggressive, and Mr Johns made it clear I was their first choice and also laid out their road map, which I think will allow this club to win multiple championships,” said the 57-year-old New Mexico native.
Bringing an impeccable reputation as one of the game's best teachers, Vargas was the bench coach in San Francisco from 1991 to 1996 before heading to AA to get managing experience. His AA club at Range made the playoffs 7 straight years when he arrived, winning a title in 2004. He earned two AA Manager of the year awards in 2002 and 2004 before moving to AAA Sequoyah for three seasons.

BACKROOM CHATTER
Best guy in the game, according to many. Elite skills across the board as a teacher. He likes to run so I think we'll see an increase in aggressiveness along the base paths. No matter, he fits and is the guy to move this thing forward.

• On another note Asst. GM Mike Weems is getting all kinds of offers and came to me to let me know he's seriously considering them. Never one to stand in the way of career progression I told him to do what he thinks he needs to do.
• When you win everyone wants a piece. Short-season manager Hector Garcia has been approached by Charlotte to be their new 3B coach. I immediately hit the streets to offer a new young coach everyone is raving about, the job at Nashville.

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ROBERTS, CHICAGO, EXTEND RELATIONSHIP
Chicago icon and fan favorite Jesse Roberts announced on his X account today that he had agreed in principle to a new 5 year 25 million dollar extension with the Iron Pigs. The contract calls for 5 million per year, with the 5th year being a 5 million team option with a 250K buyout.

BACKROOM CHATTER
He can play across the outfield, hits left-handed, is loved by fans and players everywhere, and is one of the faces of the IBL. The deal was done very quickly; he wasn't after max dollars and didn't want 10 years. An eminently affordable deal for a player we could not let walk.

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TERRY FRANCONA AWARD WINNERS
Utah's Mike Theobold took home his 4th Terry Francona award and Chicago Iron Pig skipper, now retired, Seth Spicer, won his 3rd.
Both guys piloted their teams to the World Series where Chicago took the title in 6 games.

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2014 FREE AGENCY (INT. AND IBL)

• Cheol-Min Cho a 22 year old catcher out of South Korea has come into the IBL FA market. A very solid RH bat with + power our scouts rate at 14, and a very good defender with outstanding tools. Outstanding intangibles and all the makings of an all-star. We are very interested and have extended an offer on day one of FA filings for 5 years with the 5th being a team option. He's asking 4.7 a year.
  
• A couple of 3.5 star SP on the market but all looking for 9 million plus. That's not going to be something we can do now, we'll look for a bargain maybe but I don't see much activity from us on the FA market this year.
  
• Boston retained SS Aaron Berger for 5 more years at 49 million. The 28 year old hit .305-8-57 last year.
• Unable to come to terms, OKC and SP Nick Grieshop amicably agreed to look for a trade as he enters his last contract year at 29. Washington sent 3B prospect Seth Ulrich and P prospect Rodolfo Nieto to the Tornado for Grieshop. Nick was 18-8 3.84 last year and is 98-93 3.73 lifetime.
  
• New York signed former Hitmen and San Jose closer Casey Faulkner to a 2 year 1.98 million dollar deal. Faulkner is 32-37 174 SV 2.96 ERA with 447 K in 444 IP.
  
• I think Phoenix robbed Denver. They sent IF Dustin Slocum (2.5*) and P prospect Hector Gomez (1.5*) to the Saints for OF Frank Gamble. Gamble is in the final year of his deal, just 27, and hit .250/.303/.473 with 28 HR and 88 RBI's last year. His 7 years in Denver saw him hit 226 HR's and drive in 610 runs while fanning 1364 times with a .298 OBP.
  
• Philadelphia signed 37 year old SP Dan Wilkins to a 2 year 22.8 million dollar deal. Wilkins was 18-8 3.77 with Boston last year and 30-16 3.38 over the past 2 years. Lifetime he's 171-129 3.77 with 1847 K's.
  
• After all the hype and hoopla Fresno ended up re-signing 2B Mark Drake to a 4 year 34 million dollar deal. Drake his .289-16-77 last year and is a career .287 hitter with 113 HR;s and 545 RBI's.
  
• The very next day Fresno announced they'd signed FA IF Jon Berens to a 5 year 32.5 million dollar FA deal. The former San Jose 2B is a career .298/.348/.447 hitter with an all-star game and world series title under his belt.
  
• The Enforcers signed former Iron Pig RP Matt Wright to a 1 year 900K deal.
• Dallas retained the services of SS Sean Martin to the tune of 24.7 million over the next 3 years. The 35 year old has hit .276 with 1565 hits in his lengthy career.

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LAS VEGAS LANDS THE BIG FISH
RHP Kosuke Matsumoto and the Las Vegas Aces announced they'd reached an agreement on a 6 year FA contract worth 89.4 million dollars. The 29 year old is coming off the richest contract ever signed when he 'migrated” from Japan in 2008 and signed a 7 year 130 million dollar contract with Philadelphia, making him the highest paid player in IBL history.
In those 7 years in Philadelphia he went 77-69 3.38 in 214 GS and 1421 IP with 1409 K's and 361 BB with a WHIP of 1.13.
He made 29 or more starts in 6 of the 7 years and won the 2013 AL ERA title with his 2.67 ERA. He's also won 2 strikeout titles (2009-243 and 2011-237).
He won the Gold Glove in 2010 and finished 2nd in Koufax voting in 2009 and 3rd in the 2012 voting.
Known around the league as “Runt” due to his stocky 6'1” 210 frame.

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• Columbus managed to convince their 34 year old closer that home is where the heart is. He signed a 2 year 5.1 million dollar contract after a 7-4 40 Save 3.48 2013. “Uncle Bill” is a 4 time all star, a 3 time Rivera award winner finishing 3rd in voting 3 other times as well as 3rd in the Trevor Hoffman voting last year. His entire 13 year 67 day career has been spent in Columbus where the Fairfield Glade, Tennessee native is 71-66 347 Saves 2.90 ERA over 924 IP with 1002 K's and 268 BB for a 1.13 WHIP. He's twice led the league in appearances and has been on the IL a total of 2 times in 13+ years.
  
• The very next day Columbus TRADES Sacks and 1.955 million to San Diego for 2 prospects.
  
• Former Portland 2B Hirohito Takemoto signed a 2 year 13 million dollar deal with Pittsburgh. The 30 year old hit .258-15-57 last year and is a career .250 hitter with 143 HR's.
  
• A flurry of deals on the final day of January.
• 1) Dallas signs 40 year old former Austin SP Barry Loher for 1 year and 2.44 million. He was 11-11 3.26 for the Roughnecks last year.
  
• 2) Washington hands out a 5 year 46.8 million dollar deal to 1B Darius Harper with year 5 an 11.2 million player option. In his 9 year career (all with Fresno) he's a .281/.351/.433 hitter with 205 2B 81 HR and 438 RBI. He's fanned 336 times to 334 career walks. He was the 2009 WS MVP.
  
• 2 monster deals came back to back:
• Oklahoma City signed SP Frank Wood to a 6 year 94.3 million dollar FA deal. We were in on talks with Wood early on but the price was too steep then, and he ended up getting almost 2.5 million more than he was after when he started FA. He was 13-12 3.69 last year for Denver and is 101-88 3.68 in his career, he's just 28.
• The one everyone was sort of following and interested in was catcher Motoya Kaneshiro. El Paso wanted to retain him but the 30 year old ended up in the Valley of the sun, signing a 7 year 102.3 million dollar contract. The 14.61 million AAV makes him one of the top 10 players in salary.
• He's a 3-time all star and was the 2008 NLCS MVP when El Paso won the title that year.
• He's about as elite as a catcher can be defensively but still seeking that 1st gold glove. A career .236/.298/.404 hitter with 145 career HR's. Last year he played in the fewest games in a season in his career, 118. His durability is his calling card as he's started or more games every year except last year.

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CHICAGO'S WINTER MOVES

• We did not enter the winter looking to do anything serious other than try and fill the bottom 2 rotation spots with either studs or veteran power arms.
• In December we made some deals.
• Traded OF Jaden Brown and C Skyler Huson and a 2015 3rd round pick to Boston for 26 year old SP JJ Sandberg.
• We've done a good job of stockpiling good players in the minors and there's now a bit of a logjam that needs opening up to insure the prospects get their at-bats and innings.
• Brown is a switch-hitting corner OF who hit.312/.413/.445 at AA and .404/.417/.702 in 50 AB's at New Orleans. Huson was brought in to backup Brian Stachowski but with the pursuit of Cheoi-min Cho I think we'll be ok. It's a bit of a gamble if someone snags Cho but I'm putting a 5m ceiling on his AAV so we will see.
  
• Probably the biggest “name” deal we made was trading IF Juan Chavez, OF Matt Bittingham, and RP Chris Becker to Freno for IF Domingo Deal and the Enforcers #1 pick.
• Bittingham has hit everywhere he's been and he's just 22, another victim of the logjam. Becker caught folks off guard as he's been solid, healthy and reliable though had a bit of a down year and Juan was a solid part of this club. Had a real tough season once he moved to the bench compared to 2013 (.254-17-63 to this years .235-3-16) but a solid player in every facet.
• The trade brought us his replacement though as Deal is a RHH avg to above middle infielder who is just 24. Fresno took him 35th overall in 2012. He profiles as a starting 2B on just about any club in existence with lots of room to progress. In limited time last year he hit .213/.236/.295 but he's got the toolset to be elite.
  
• Traded a pitching prospect in Todd Barbour and RP Rick McKitrick as well as a 2nd round 2015 pick to San Francisco for SP Kevin Blann and a 2nd round draft pick.
• This was possibly the move that cements us as a contender. Blann is an upper 90's flamethrower with a fastball, slider, and curve all graded 19+ as well as a change up that's early on in the process. He's 15-14 4.81 6 Saves in 130 G and 20 starts. In 273 IP he's fanned 322, walked 164 and alllowed 236 hits. Clearly the control needs to continue improving but our scouts assure me it will. He's a power arm in the 4th spot at worst.
  
• We lost C prospect Troy Zehnder to the Hitmen and 3B Andy Williams to New England in the Rule 5 draft. We took Zehnder in the 2nd round (79th overall) back in 2011. Andy Williams has hit 65 HR's and driven in 179 over the past 2 seasons at AA/AAA. Likely a 1B/3B we just have no room.
  
• Sent LH RP Trevor Carlson and P Matt Boyles to New York for P prospect Joey Smith. Carlson was out of options and not likely to break with the club and Boyles was a guy our scouts were fine with including.
• Smith is an older prospect at 25 but a RH power sinker and slider combo he'll work on in New Orleans.
  
• Traded IF prospect Rick Arbuckle to Las Vegas for veteran OF John Mathias and OF prospect Corey Barr. Mathias has a sip of coffee in the big leagues. He hits LH and can play 1B/LF/RF while Barr is an elite OF'er having won gold gloves at AA and AAA the last two years, he switch hits, has ++ speed and a cannon. His bat is still a work in progress.
  
• To quell Mr Johns anger over the lack of International talent we have alloted and expect to pay penalties for surpassing the 1.56m cap. Two 5* pitchers looking for 1.3 and a 4.5* SS looking for a million. Both pitchers were offered in the 800 range and the SS was offered 750.
  
• Late January and we snagged 16 year old SS David Beltran.
• A 6'2” 180 lb RH hitting SS who could likely throw to 1st and arrive before the ball does. Scouts grade his IF range at 20+. OSA has him as a 5* guy, our guys have him at 3.5*. His valuable trait? Both gap and power tools graded 20+ with an eye many thing could grade out in the high teens. Confident kid.
• OSA had Marcos Montoya as a 5* talent and we jumped before all due diligence was done. Our scouts say he's a 2.5* top side with upper 90's potential (I actually made my moves on the INT market with OSA ratings up and not my scouts!!! DID not realize it until it was too late!). Oh well!

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Right after the new year we announced the following:

IRON PIGS, CHO, COME TO TERMS
Cheol-min Cho and the Chicago Iron Pigs announced an agreement on a 4 year 18.9 million dollar contract with year 4 a 4.7 million team option. Cho, from Osan, South Korea, is a 22 year old IBL ready receiver with elite defensive tools and a very good bat that could be a top of the order type depending on how he adjusts to IBL pitching.

BACKROOM CHATTER
This is a legit stud, immediately our best defensive catcher and scouts say the upside is beyond anything Stachowski can do. At 22 I'd like to think we have one heir apparent in the house behind the dish with Dean Hahn working his way here as well.