Welcome back to year seventeen of the Alabama Slammers Franchise Report! Here are the links to the previous versions if you want to catch up (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029, 2030, 2031,2032, 2033, 2034, 2035, 2036). Previous Season Highlights: Andy Schaffer wins Cy Young 20-year-old Marco Vazquez leads the league in batting average, hits, doubles, and triples Edgar Sanchez wins seventh straight gold glove 6 players make all-star team 106-win regular season Lost in NLCS 4-2 Start of Offseason: As with the previous versions, I’ll list the moves I made, the rationale behind those moves, the season results, and the future outlook. Here are the salaries heading into the offseason. \Unless stated otherwise, all players were re-signed to their one-year arbitration estimate* Departures (non-trades): Ernesto Bernal Bernal was discovered by my scout in 2022 and spent fifteen years with the organization. He’s the franchise’s all-time leader in games, at-bats, WAR, runs, hits, total bases, singles, doubles, triples, RBIs, and stolen bases. He’s the greatest player in franchise history and it really hurt to part ways with him, but all good things must come to an end. He signed a 5/$84m deal with the Rangers, which seems reasonable, and had a solid year. I received a supplemental first-round pick upon his signing. Drew Romo Romo looked to be on his way out, so I let him walk as a free agent. He didn’t sign with a team and retired at the end of the season. He played his entire 12-year major league career with the Slammers and was a huge reason we had six Cy Young award winners during his tenure. Eric Lawrence Lawrence struggled last year in the majors, so I gave him a season in AAA to work things out. He looks ready for the big leagues again and will be an opening day starter or get traded. Jeff Hopper Hopper was excellent during his six years with us, highlighted by his 2035 campaign when he finished third in the MVP voting. He wanted 8/$232m to re-sign, which was too expensive for my tastes, and ended up getting 6/$156m from the Jazz, which is still too expensive for me. I don’t see this contract ending well. Move #1: Hired a new trainer. I heavily prioritize prevention and this guy is good at preventing all types of injuries. Here’s my old trainer. Move #2: Slammers Receive: Edwin de la Torre Diamondbacks Receive: Alex Rivera, Luis Arguello, Mike Dooner, Harold Coppola, Bryn Hill De la Torre is my third baseman fantasy. He has elite batting potential, above average fielding ability, excellent baserunning, great character, durable injury proneness, and bats from the left side of the plate. I gave the Diamondbacks an assortment of young and talented players, but I would’ve gladly given them twice as much. Guys like de la Torre just don’t exist. Move #3: Slammers Receive: Jonathan Hubbard Padres Receive: Eric Clark Hubbard might not be anything special to the Padres, but he’s beautiful to me. He’s a right-handed hitter, has elite defensive ratings, doesn’t expect to start, is durable, and has the sparkplug personality trait. I needed a very specific player and Hubbard met all of my criteria. He’ll start against lefties and play a decent amount against righties in an attempt to keep Steve Flores healthy for the playoffs. Move #4: Signed Andy Schaffer to a 5/$105m extension. Schaffer is 26 and just won a Cy Young, this seems like a pretty safe deal. Move #5: Signed free agent Tommy Noonan to a 3/$30m deal. After looking through the available in-house, trade, and free agent replacement options, I decided the best course of action was to roll the dice on Noonan. I’ve seen players bounce back from the Guru before, so hopefully Noonan does just that. If he falls off a cliff, I’ll only owe him $15m after this year. Move #6: Added a Dominican Rookie League team. We haven’t gotten much out of our scouting discoveries, and I think it might be partially due to them spending so much time in the international complex, so we’re adding a Dominican Rookie League team for them to develop in – The Kiev Blue Claws. Don’t ask me why the team is in Ukraine, it’s just what the owner wanted. I promoted every player from the international complex, and I’ll continue to promote new players as they’re discovered. I’m interested to see how this works out. Move #7: Slammers Receive: Chris Joiner Mets Receive: Joe Poffenberger Poffenberger was given strong consideration for the starting catcher job this year, but I decided to go with Gutierrez instead. There was no need to keep Poffenberger around in the minors, so I swapped him for a guy that can provide some depth in a year or two. In-House Moves (Preseason): Sean Vahey remains on the major league roster after joining during roster expansion last season. He will be a member of the bullpen. Jose Gutierrez promoted from AA. Will be the primary starter at catcher vs. RHPs. Bobby McCallum promoted from AA. Will start at first base. Seung-hwa Kim promoted from AA. Will start in left field. Bob Banks will slide to DH with the promotion of Kim. Final Financial Situation: We have about $34m in available budget room to start the year, so shouldn’t need to make any trades for cash, and we might even complete the owner goal of ending the year with a balance of +$23m. He’s been hounding me about that one for a while. Here are the salaries heading into the season. Move #8 (Part 1,Part 2): Slammers Receive: $14m Slammers Lose: Chris Dearborn, Nate Holston Turns out we needed some more cash. Holston is a career minor leaguer, but Dearborn might have a real MLB future. I’ve seen too many players with his profile flame out though, so I’m willing to take the risk he doesn’t amount to anything. Season Outlook: This is the most excited I’ve been about a season in a while. It’s always fun to cruise to 100-win seasons with established teams, but we’re going with the youth movement this year. Our five through eight hitters have a combined zero days of major league service, so I’m really trusting my scout that these rookies are ready to perform. The pitching should remain elite, so if the young guys come through, we should roll to another division title. Batters: Primary Lineupvs. RHPandvs. LHPwhen Healthy (\DH enabled in both leagues, lineup vs. RHP shown below)* RF – Marco Vazquez Vazquez cooled off a bit at the plate as compared to last season but upped his defense to boost his overall value. He made his second all-star team and won his first gold glove. CF – Wil Mireles Mireles had another excellent season but will be leaving as a free agent. He wants 8/$256m to re-sign, which is too much for me. 2B – Edgar Sanchez Sanchez continued his march towards the hall of fame with another great year. He made his third all-star team and won his eighth gold glove. DH – Bob Banks Banks moved to DH this year, which should be the least taxing position, but missed about a month to injury. When healthy, he performed below his usual standard. Hopefully, he gets back on track next year. LF – Seung-Hwa Kim Kim had a solid rookie year and will be back for a sophomore campaign. He’s 26-years-old but still looks to have a lot of untapped potential. 3B – Edwin de la Torre De la Torre had a monster rookie season, winning rookie of the month in September and taking rookie of the year honors. He’s 21-years-old, so should be around for a long time. 1B – Bobby McCallum McCallum started off the year on a crazy hot streak. He won rookie of the month in April and June and was on pace for 65 home runs and 167 RBIs. He cooled off tremendously as the season progressed but was still good enough to finish third in the rookie of the year voting. C – Jose Gutierrez I feel pretty good about my decision to go with Gutierrez at catcher. He played great defense and was league average at the plate, which is all I could ever ask for. As an added bonus, his personality trait was revealed as sparkplug. SS – Steve Flores Flores came back from a year-long injury and played great. I would love to keep his defense around forever but it’s probably better to go ahead and move him before he gets injured again. I have a solid replacement in Eric Lawrence. Bench C – Danny Wells Wells has been pretty much the same player since he debuted in 2032 but I’m ok with that. As long as he continues to play excellent defense, he’ll stick around. IF – Justus Evans Evans had a pretty good five-year run for a guy that used to be a pitcher. I have plenty of in-house replacements though, so he’ll leave as a free agent. IF – Jonathan Hubbard I brought in Hubbard to replace the fragile backup, so of course he got injured. He missed a month with a separated shoulder but did what was asked of him when healthy. OF – Andy Vera Vera is overqualified to be a bench player, but I have an excess of outfield talent and he’s the worst of the bunch. He might get a shot to start in center field next year with Mireles departing. Replacements IF – Chris McClain It’s a good thing I kept the fragile backup middle infielder around. He filled in for Hubbard for a month and didn’t kill us. OF – Mike Honeycutt Honeycutt filled in for Banks and was pretty good in his limited opportunities. Depending on the rest of the roster, he might get a backup role next year. Pitchers: Pitching Staff when Healthy SP – Corey MacDonald I took the pitch count off MacDonald since his injury proneness was upgraded to iron man and he continued to stay healthy. He played well and made his seventh all-star game. SP – Gilles Palacios Palacios had one of his best seasons yet, winning the pitching triple crown and collecting his fourth Cy Young award. He wants 7/$245m to re-sign, but I’m going to try to find a way to bring him back. More than likely, I’ll have to sign him in free agency. SP – Andy Schaffer Schaffer decided to take it easy after winning a Cy Young last year and getting a contract extension. Hopefully, he goes back to his Cy Young ways next season. SP – Eddie Copping I had strongly considered a long-term extension for Copping in the offseason but I’m glad I held off. He struggled this year, posting his worst season yet. I think he’ll be fine going forward, but I’m much less worried about his performance without a long-term deal. SP – Bobby Butler Butler might not be done as a major league starting pitcher, but he’s done with the Slammers. He suffered a partially torn UCL in spring training, then suffered an eight-month setback in August. Hopefully, he still has some trade value when he returns. RP – Alan McCarter McCarter has been getting worse the last two seasons, but I’ve kept him around for his prankster personality trait. I’ll try to find someone in the offseason that’s also good at baseball. RP – Tommy Noonan Noonan isn’t the world beater he used to be but he’s still a really good reliever. I’m glad I brought him back. RP – Jose Macias Macias was solid for the second straight season and will be back next year. RP – Sean Vahey Vahey had a tough start to the season but established himself as one of the best relievers in the game by the end of the year. He’ll probably be around for his remaining five years of team control. RP – Jose Aguilar Aguilar once again performed like one of the best relievers in baseball, making his fifth all-star game. He has two more team friendly years on his contract, so will definitely be back. RP – Mike Bentley I was browsing through player profiles about halfway through the season and did a double take when I got to Bentley. All of a sudden, he had an 80-grade changeup and wanted to be a starter, which definitely wasn’t the case last year. I kept him in the bullpen until rosters expanded, then let him work as the sixth starter the rest of the season. He did well in his five starts and will be a member of the rotation next year. Hopefully, I can still sign him to a cheap extension. Oh yeah, he also won reliever of the year. RP – Steve Hixson Hixson wasn’t as good as last year but he’s cheap and durable, so I’ll probably bring him back. RP – Jonathan Kelsey It’s always nice to have an iron man reliever that’s capable of competently starting 31 games. He moved to the rotation when Butler was injured and gave us 190.1 solid innings. Unfortunately, he’s an upcoming free agent, so probably won’t return. Replacements RP – Chris Larkin Larkin was called up and given Kelsey’s bullpen role when Butler was injured. He wants to be a starter, but I don’t feel comfortable with his movement, so he’ll remain in the bullpen or get traded next season. RP – Joe Cope A 32nd round pick in 2032, it took Cope a while to figure things out in the minors, but once he did, he rose quickly through the system. He was called up when rosters expanded and struggled in limited appearances, but I think he’ll be one of the best relievers in the game in a year or two. RP – Mike Blake Blake was also called up when rosters expanded, and he pitched well in his three appearances. He looks like he could be a solid starting pitcher, but I have better options ahead of him, so he’ll have to take a bullpen role in the majors. Season Results: We didn’t do our usual raping and pillaging during the regular season but still won 104 games and took our eighth straight division crown. The Cardinals actually took the lead from us at game 130, but we took it back thirteen games later and pulled away late. The pitching continued to be dominant and the offense was amongst the league best. Other than Butler, we’re fully healthy going into the playoffs and will go with a playoff rotation of Palacios, MacDonald, Schaffer, and Bentley. Copping and Kelsey will move to the bullpen. Our first-round opponent is the 94-68 Rockies. Their 3-5 hitters (Eric Zuniga, Noe Renteria, Robby Teeter) are terrifying, but they don’t have much pitching. We should be able to take this one. Divisional Series Game 1, Rockies Win 5-3 – We played well overall but couldn’t overcome Renteria’s four RBI performance. Three players had solo home runs in the loss. Divisional Series Game 2, Slammers Win 5-4 – MacDonald gave up four runs but the bullpen provided 3.2 scoreless innings to hold on for the win. We had fourteen hits in the contest and Sanchez led the way with two RBIs. Divisional Series Game 3, Slammers Win 6-4 – New starter Mike Bentley had a great outing, striking out eight while giving up two runs over six innings. Banks led the way on offense with three RBIs. Divisional Series Game 4, Slammers Win 8-1 – Schaffer pitched a gem, going seven scoreless innings and striking out nine. Everyone chipped in on offense en route to fourteen hits and eight runs. Divisional Series Game 5, Slammers Win 12-8 – We knocked out their starter in the first and continued to pile on in the 12-8 victory. Kim led the way with two homers and three RBIs, winning series MVP. Next up is the 101-61 Cardinals, led by young ace Eddie Salinas. They have a deep and balanced roster, so I could see this going either way. The winner should take the World Series. NLCS Game 1, Slammers Win 6-4 – The rookie McCallum put the team on his back with a three-home run, five RBI performance. MacDonald gave up four runs in his second straight appearance, but Aguilar and Noonan closed out the game with 3.1 scoreless innings. NLCS Game 2, Slammers Win 10-3 – It was Banks putting on his superman cape this time, with a four RBI performance. Bentley gave up two runs over 5.1 innings. NLCS Game 3, Slammers Win 3-2 (12) – This one was close throughout, but a bases load walk by Kim in the top of the twelfth provided the game deciding run. Schaffer, Aguilar, Noonan, and Macias combined to allow two runs over twelve innings. NLCS Game 4, Slammers Win 2-1 – Palacios came out on top in a pitcher’s duel and we swept the series. McCallum was named MVP, mostly off of his game one performance. We’re once again facing off against the Red Sox in the World Series, and this should just be a victory lap. They have a very good rotation (Jorge Morones, Bobby Dibble, Rob McDowell, Josh Sheppard) but no one worth mentioning on offense. It’ll be a major upset if we lose this one. World Series Game 1, Slammers Win 8-2 – We started off the series with a bang, getting home runs from McCallum, Banks, and de la Torre. MacDonald gave up two runs over 6.2 innings and Aguilar closed out the rest. World Series Game 2, Slammers Win 7-4 – The Rookie Kim led the way with a pair of two-run homers. Then Bentley struck out eleven and gave up two runs over six innings. World Series Game 3, Red Sox Win 3-1 – Red Sox ace Morones shut us down in the loss, but we can win the series without seeing him again if we win two of the next three. World Series Game 4, Red Sox Win 9-7 – We were on track to win this one before a complete meltdown by Macias and Noonan in the eighth. They gave up a combined five runs in the inning and the offense couldn’t bail them out in the ninth. World Series Game 5, Slammers Win 6-2 – We really needed this win. MacDonald and Vahey combined to hold them to two runs over nine innings and Banks led the way on offense with three RBIs. We’ll head back home and look to close out the series. World Series Game 6, Slammers Win 14-5 – This one was close until a nine run explosion in the fourth inning put the game away. Every starter other than Kim had at least one RBI. The Red Sox first baseman won series MVP in the loss, but we’d much rather have the title than an individual award. We’re really starting to roll now, as that’s our third title in six seasons! The young guys came through when it mattered and will hopefully lead us to many more titles in the future. Here are the rest of the playoff results and MLB standings. Top Prospects: The top prospects list continues to be in flux, as we promoted three players and traded another three from last year’s edition, but we still have a lot of good players. 1.) Hector Ruiz Ruiz was an honorable mention the last two years because I don’t trust international amateur free agent signings, but I’m ready to buy the hype now. If he can stay healthy and reach his full potential, he’s a 10 WAR player. He’ll begin next season at AA. 2.) Victor Lacayo I’m starting to get some serious mileage from these international amateur free agent signings, as that’s how the top two players on the list were acquired. Lacayo has monster hitting potential for a middle infielder and could be elite defensively if he gets a slight bump to his range. Worst case, he’ll a great bench player. He’ll begin next year in A. 3.) Jake Maddox Maddox continued his steady climb through the system and looks just about ready for the majors. Depending on what his ratings look like at the start of next year, he might make the opening day roster. 4.) Chris Joiner I had a trio of guys last year that I thought were in line to take Justus Evans spot, but the acquisition of Joiner probably ended their major league chances. He plays above average defense at three positions, has the potential to be an elite hitter, and has excellent baserunning skills. He’ll begin next season on the opening day roster. 5.) Felix Lopez Lopez could probably fill the role Joiner will take next year, but he’s still young, so I’ll give him a year in AAA to round out his skills. I like everything about him but his range, so hopefully that improves next year. 6.) Chris Overcash Overcash looks ready for the majors but I don’t have a place for him, so he’ll start next season in AAA. I’ll get him some experience in left field, and he’ll be first in line as an injury replacement. 7.) Gabe Depass If Depass had durable injury proneness, he’d be top two on the list. He’s a great talent but you can never put too much faith in a pitcher with normal injury proneness. He’ll start next season at A. 8.) Brad Cole Cole is a very interesting player. Other than his outfield error, he has everything you’d want in an outfield prospect, so I’m hoping that improves next year in A. I was able to scoop him up in the sixth round since he was listed as a pitcher coming out of the draft. 9.) Nate Bianco Bianco’s movement still hasn’t improved, so I’m starting to cool on him a bit. He performed well in A- though and will begin next season in A+. 10.) Chris Brown Rest in peace Chris Brown. If he makes it back from his torn UCL, he’ll be restricted to bullpen duty. Honorable mentions: Andy West, Bob Larson I usually don’t include players like this on the list, but these two curiosities have very interesting ratings profiles and dominated the competition in A. They’ll both begin next season in AA and I’m hoping their ratings catch up to their production. Eric Whittington, Israel Lopez Both of these guys were listed as starters coming out of the draft, but I’ve put them in their proper roles as relievers. Between the two of them, I’m sure one will make the majors. Sam Leintz Leintz can’t stay healthy, so he’ll probably get traded. Too bad, since I used a first-round pick on him last year. Promoted to MLB: Bobby McCallum, Seung-Hwa Kim, Jose Gutierrez Future Outlook: We have some tough decisions this offseason with Palacios’s upcoming free agency and logjams in the infield and outfield. Eric Lawrence deserves to start, as do a number of minor league outfielders, but we also have a lot young entrenched starters in the majors. I’m not sure yet how I’ll build the roster, but these are good problems to have. It’s not a question of how we win, but how do we win the most. Hopefully, we can push towards 120 wins next year. Here is the budget and salaries heading into the offseason.
Welcome to Part Two of my 'Unusual Bowling Feats' post! Link to Part One here.
Peaking Too Soon
Whenever cricket has a discussion regarding comparisons between different bowlers, some people always pipe up with 'yes, but if you take this bowler at their peak, then...', as if comparing Bowler X at their peak to the entire career of Bowler Y is remotely fair. All players have peaks; purple patches are not restricted to player who you happen to like. With all this nonsense about restricting stats to the last ten years, to the 1980s, to the period after reaching the age of 25, to after that one innings of 5/6 against the mighty Zimbabwe back in 1996, and even to the past year or two years (because that's a representative sample), there's nothing stopping me from looking at a bowler's first delivery and declaring that to be their 'peak'. There have been 65 cases in which a bowler has taken a wicket off their first ball in a particular format: 20 in Tests, 26 in ODIs and 19 in T20Is. The first to accomplish such a feat was Australia's Tom Horan, who dismissed England's Walter Read in only the second ever Test in January 1883 with his first ball in international cricket. As with the unusual dismissals section of my previous post, I won't go through everyone, but I'll highlight some notable bowlers who went above and beyond when it comes to achieving unusual bowling feats. Firstly, there are seven bowlers who can truly be said to have 'peaked too soon'. What do New Zealand's Dennis Smith and South Africa's Hardus Viljoen have in common? Both of them took their first wicket with their first ball in Tests...and both of them took their only wicket with their first ball in Tests. In fact, both of them were one-Test wonders, and in Smith's case, a one-innings wonder. At their peaks, they had a bowling average of 0 and a strike rate of 1, but alas, they both went through a decline as they ended up averaging 113 and 94 with the ball respectively. Just imagine how great they would have been had the rest of the careers not taken a nosedive after their excellent first deliveries. 😔 In ODIs, three bowlers took their only wicket with their first ball: India's Sadagoppan Ramesh, New Zealand's Andrew Mathieson and Zimbabwe's Ainsley Ndlovu. However, Ndlovu hasn't yet retired from what I can tell, so there's still time yet. Bangladesh's Taijul Islam and England's Lewis Gregory round off the list for T20Is, but both of them are still playing, so they also have time. These seven bowlers are nonetheless all united in the fact that if you take just their peak (i.e. their first delivery), they end up with better stats than Sydney Barnes, Glenn McGrath, Muttiah Muralitharan and Dale Steyn. This should solve those 'who is the GOAT bowler' debates once and for all. There are other bowlers who I want to mention, however. In Tests, I've spoken about all the bowlers who I feel went above and beyond when it comes to unusual bowling feats, but in ODIs, there are two bowlers who I want to single out. The scorers among us will know that when it comes to bowling figures, no-balls and wides are added to the 'Runs' column but not to the 'Balls' column, as they don't count as legal deliveries in an over. Remember also that those 65 cases are of bowlers taking wickets off their first ball, not necessarily of bowlers taking wickets off their first delivery. A no-ball or a wide counts as a delivery but not a ball, as the latter term applies only to legal deliveries. Thus, if you count all the legal deliveries and throw out all the illegal deliveries (bowled by dead people), you'll find that I've bowled the most balls, BY A LOT! Anyway, the first bowler I want to talk about is Sri Lanka's Charitha Buddhika Fernando. In a 2001 ODI against Zimbabwe, Buddhika bowled his first ever delivery in ODIs...and it was a no-ball. Bit of an anti-climax. He then got a second opportunity to make some magic happen...and it was another no-ball. Not the best start. However, third time's the charm, and Buddhika finally dismissed Dougie Marillier LBW. Thus, although Buddhika had technically taken a wicket with his first ball in ODIs, it was actually his third delivery. Secondly, we have the West Indian allrounder Keemo Paul. Against Afghanistan in a World Cup qualifier in 2018, he was brought on to bowl in the second over of Afghanistan's innings. His first delivery was a wide outside off, so a bit of a nervy start. However, he then dismissed Javed Ahmadi LBW on his very next delivery, which was also technically his first ball in ODIs. Now, some of you will complain that I'm strawmanning the argument a bit. Of course 'one-ball peaks' are ridiculous, but they're hardly comparable to periods of, say, ten years. I hear you, so why not double that timeframe and consider those bowlers who peaked with their first two balls? Oh, yeah, now things are getting spicy. Two bowlers have taken two wickets with their first two balls in an international format, and both of them did so in T20Is. The first was Australia's Michael Kasprowicz. What's interesting about this one is that this happened in the very first T20I back in 2005 between Australia and New Zealand, back when the format was dismissed by many as a mere novelty. Kasprowicz bowled Stephen Fleming with his first ball, before then dismissing Mathew Sinclair (thanks to a catch from Simon Katich) for a golden duck (which also happened to be the first ever golden duck in a T20I). How fitting that the first ever instance in international cricket of a bowler taking two wickets from their first two balls would occur in the first ever T20I. The second such instance occurred in a 2017 T20I between New Zealand and Bangladesh. Lockie Ferguson, who was on his debut, was brought on in the sixth over, and started by bowling a full toss outside off. Somehow, this resulted in a wicket, as the batsman, Sabbir Rahman, completely messed up the execution of what should have been an easy shot and ended up being caught. Ferguson's second delivery was much better: An outswinger that found the outside edge of Soumya Sarkar's bat and ended up in the hands of Corey Anderson at gully. Ferguson's third delivery was a yorker on off stump, but Mahmudullah somehow managed to keep it out, thus denying Ferguson a hat-trick from his first three balls in T20Is. Both Kasprowicz and Ferguson, at their peak, had T20I bowling figures of 0.2-0-0-2, which gives us a bowling average of 0, an economy rate of 0 and a strike rate of 1 over the course of their first two balls. Unfortunately, no bowler has ever taken a hat-trick on their first three balls in an international format, or at least not yet. Similarly, as far as I can tell, no bowler has ever taken a wicket off their first ball in two different international formats, let alone in all three. These two feats have yet to be achieved; who will be the first? There is one last bowler who I want to cover. Out of all the feats in this post, this one has to be my favourite just for its meme value alone. Remember when I mentioned that an illegal delivery did not count as a ball bowled? Some of you may be wondering if it's thus theoretically possible for a bowler to take a wicket without having bowled a ball at all. Let's consider the two situations in which a bowler delivers a ball without it actually counting as a ball. The first such situation is a no-ball. Unfortunately for us, a no-ball precludes the possibility of a batsman being dismissed bowled, caught, stumped, LBW or hit wicket, which is a problem as those are the only forms of dismissal which are credited to the bowler. A batsman can still be dismissed run out, hit the ball twice or obstructing the field, but those aren't credited to the bowler. No luck here, then. What about wides? Well, this is where things get interesting. As with a no-ball, a batsman cannot be dismissed bowled, caught or LBW off a wide. However, unlike a no-ball, a batsman can be dismissed stumped or hit wicket. I don't know the rationale behind this, but the implications are mouth-watering for anyone who is interested in unusual bowling feats. It is theoretically possible for a bowler to deliver a wide on their first delivery yet still dismiss a batsman stumped or hit wicket. The question is: Has this ever actually happened in international cricket? The answer? Yes, it has, on exactly one occasion. It's the 31st of August 2011, and India is playing in a one-off T20I against England. This match is notable for marking the T20I debuts of Alex Hales, Jos Buttler, Rahul Dravid and Ajinkya Rahane. More notable for our purposes, however, is an incident which occurred in the eighth over of England's innings. Given a target of 166 to chase, England were cruising along at 60/2 after seven overs, requiring 106 runs from 78 balls to win. A task that is more than doable, I'm sure you can agree, especially considering that at that moment in time, Eoin Morgan and Kevin Pietersen (arguably England's two greatest ever T20I batsmen) were at the crease. MS Dhoni needed to conjure up a masterstroke to have any chance of beating England. Thankfully, he had in his arsenal a truly special bowler. You see, batsmen are used to playing pace bowlers at various speeds, ranging from medium to fast, and they're also used to playing spinners, both finger-spinners and wrist-spinners, both left-handed and right-handed. However, the England batsmen were not prepared for MS Dhoni to make the 900IQ move of bringing on right-arm quickTM bowler Virat Kohli to break the partnership. As the very first right-arm quickTM bowler in the history of the sport, England were not prepared for the havoc which Kohli was about to unleash on their sorry excuse of a batting lineup. Kevin Pietersen evidently underestimated Kohli, however, as he launched himself forwards, presumably wishing to slog him for six. The bad news for Kohli was that his first delivery in T20I cricket was a leg-side wide, so he ended up conceding a run from it. The good news was that Dhoni was ready to whip off the stumps before Pietersen could return to his crease in time, and thus the Virgin KP was outsmarted by the Chad Kohli. At that exact moment, since the wide was not a legal delivery, Kohli's bowling figures read 0-0-1-1. Many bowlers have taken wickets off their first balls in international cricket, but only the Chad Kohli could take a wicket off his zeroth ball in an international format. 🐐 England ended up winning that match by six wickets (though with only three balls remaining), but it's fair to say that Dhoni achieved the moral victory in that game. If dismissing one of the GOAT T20I batsmen off your zeroth ball is a chad move then bringing on that bowler when your team is struggling to take wickets is a gigachad move. Eoin Morgan would never. Anyway, that's it for Part One. The post ended up being so long that I had to split it in two, which I wasn't expecting.
Why Bowl Many Deliveries When One Delivery Do Trick?
Some of the most bizarre and unusual bowling innings are those in which a bowler delivers just one ball and nothing else. The reasons for this can vary: Perhaps a bowler is injured after five deliveries and someone has to bowl the final delivery of an over; perhaps a bowler only makes it to one delivery before breaking down; perhaps a bowler takes the final wicket off their only delivery; perhaps a batsman scores the winning runs off a bowler's only delivery. In any case, such an achievement is quite unusual, but not unique by any stretch. It has occurred 29 times in Tests, 56 times in ODIs and 18 times in T20Is. Generally speaking, what ends up happening is that the ball results in a dot or in a single; if a bowler is really unlucky, it'll end up as a boundary four. However, occasionally, something truly strange happens. For starters, let's deal with the two occasions on which a bowler has ended a Test innings with figures of 0.1-0-6-0. The first instance occurred in a 1982 Test between Australia and Pakistan which took place in Karachi. The Test was marred by such incidents as a marquee being set alight and missiles and rocks being thrown onto the field as a result of political agitation; there was even a full-blown pitch invasion by the spectators at one point, driving Aussie captain Kim Hughes to remove his players from the field and even to consider cancelling the tour outright and to call for a ban on all international cricket in Pakistan (as if they'd ever actually ban international cricket in a country as crazy for the sport as Pakistan due to a violent incident). Anyway, as far as the match itself, we actually witnessed an unusual batting feat, as opener Mohsin Khan was given out on 58 for handling the ball in Pakistan's first innings. Despite this, by the fourth innings, Pakistan had to chase down just 45 runs to beat Australia, and from Cricinfo's account, the pitch was pretty flat as well. Nonetheless, after eleven overs, with Pakistan requiring a boundary four to win, Kim Hughes decided to turn his arm around and see if his military mediums could do the trick. They couldn't; Mohsin Khan promptly finished it off in style, hitting Hughes' first (and only) ball of his spell for six. The second instance occurred in Bangladesh's 50th Test match, which was against New Zealand in 2008. After Bangladesh collapsed to 137 all out in their first innings, New Zealand managed to score 357 in the second innings of the match. Matthew Bell scored 107(184) while Jacob Oram scored 117(166); the lack of quality in the Bangladeshi attack can be gleaned from the fact that this was the match in which Chris Martin famously made his Test high score of 12*. New Zealand ended up needing to chase just 35 runs in their second innings, which they succeeded in doing after Peter Fulton smacked Mohammad Ashraful for six off the all-rounder's first delivery in the innings. How did this humiliation occur? Well, you see, the inside part of Oram's bat was made up of rubber and the outside part was covered by some wood, so all he had to do was touch the ball and it flew to the boundary; that's the secret why he was scoring runs. The ICC didn't check his bat because ICC=NZC=PIG3, so don't respect them. BD would still win, however, because their daddy Tamim made his debut, and they couldn't threaten him with a Super Smash contract to play badly like they did to Aftab Ahmed (seriously, though, Tamim Iqbal did very well, scoring 53 and 84 in his two debut innings and being involved in an opening partnership of 161, a record for Bangladeshi openers at the time, whereas Aftab Ahmed was dismissed for a pair). On the other end of the spectrum, let's discuss the only instance in the history of Test cricket in which a bowler has finished an innings with figures of 0.1-0-0-1. It was 1912, and England were playing Australia in Melbourne. The Aussies were favourites for the clash, but a spectacular 5/44 from the great Sydney Barnes (at an economy rate of 1.91 as well; no other bowler who bowled an over or more had an economy rate below 2.20) resulted in them falling to 184 all out in their first innings. Despite England needing 219 runs to win in their final innings, a graceful 126*(206) from Jack Hobbs ensured a comfortable victory. It is in the first innings to which we must look for this feat. Frank Woolley was a batting all-rounder whose first-class statistics would put Garry Sobers and Imran Khan to shame, and he holds the record for the second-most FC runs scored and the second-most FC matches played (behind only Hobbs and Wilfred Rhodes respectively). Unfortunately, while his batting in Tests was solid enough, he could never replicate his bowling form, and in this particular match, he wasn't given the ball until the 63rd over, by which time Australia were 184/9. He proceeded to bowl the tail-ender Bill Whitty, thus ending up with innings figures of 0.1-0-0-1. Now, last time round, I made a glaring omission. I'd mentioned situations in which batsmen had finished on scores of 6(2), 6*(1) and even 6(1), but as a commenter pointed out, scores of 5*(1) and 5(1) are arguably even more impressive on the scale of unusual achievements. I'm not making the same mistake this time, so now I'll move on to the two occasions in the history of Test matches in which a bowler finished an innings with figures of 0.1-0-5-0. The first occurred in a 1992 Test between England and Pakistan. The two sides were similar in many respects: both had recently been forced to move on from their star all-rounders (Ian Botham in England's case and Imran Khan in Pakistan's case); both had recently emerged from a World Cup Final (which Pakistan had won); and both had just dropped two promising young batsmen who were struggling to make the step-up to Test cricket (Graeme Hick in England's case and Inzamam-ul-Haq in Pakistan's case). However, one metric on which the teams were clearly unequal was the bowling. The Pakistani bowling attack consisted of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, whereas England had Neil Mallender, Devon Malcolm and Chris Lewis. Slight mismatch there, methinks. Thanks to the two kings of swing (they both bowled so well with the old ball that the England coach, Micky Stewart, accused them of ball-tampering), Pakistan needed just two runs in their final innings to secure victory. A straightforward task, you'd think, but they were not prepared for England's secret weapon: Mark Ramprakash. Unfortunately for Ramps, his first delivery was called a wide, meaning that the scores were already level. He knew, however, that the tie was still on so long as he took the next ten wickets without conceding any runs. The very next delivery was smacked by Aamer Sohail for four, meaning that Ramprakash ended up with innings figures of 0.1-0-5-0. The second such occurrence was in a Test between England and South Africa in 1998. Alec Stewart won the toss and went 'we'll have a bowl, thanks', which seemed a masterstroke at first as Dominic Cork swiftly dismissed Bacher, Kirsten, Kallis (for a duck) and Cullinan, leaving the Saffers at 46/4. However, with Darren Gough injured, England lacked bite once Cork's spell was over, and South Africa would go on to produce a fifth-wicket stand of 184 runs (a record fifth-wicket stand for South Africa at the time). Specialist fielder Jonty Rhodes chipped in with a score of 117, and England collapsed to 110 all out in their first innings, which allowed South Africa to enforce the follow-on. The result was that South Africa required 15 runs in their second innings to win. Angus Fraser conceded ten runs in his first over, and it was left to Dominic Cork (who had taken 6/119 in the first innings) to try to save the match. Cricinfo states that Cork conceded a boundary four and a no-ball (both were definitely separate as the two openers faced eight balls between them), but it doesn't give the order. Thus, I'm going to pretend that it was a four followed by a no-ball, as I love the mental image of a Test bowler conceding a no-ball when the scores are level. Like Ramprakash before him, Cork finished with innings figures of 0.1-0-5-0. Right, time for ODIs! There have been seven different instances of bowlers finishing on 0.1-0-0-1, and I'm not going through all of them. Let me just say that the seven bowlers in question are Clive Lloyd, Martin van Jaarsveld, Dinesh Mongia, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mohammad Yousuf (who I've already talked about), Sanath Jayasuriya and Kedar Jadhav. I checked all of them to try to spot anything unusual, but they were all situations in which the opponent was nine wickets down and the tenth wicket was taken on the first ball of the over, so there's nothing interesting to say about any of them. Let's move on to the two incidents in which a bowler finished on figures of 0.1-0-6-0. First, let's look at a 2008 ODI between South Africa and Bangladesh. The Saffers were set a target of 174 runs (this was despite a record fifth-wicket partnership for Bangladesh of 119 runs between Shakib Al Hasan and Raqibul Hasan), so you'd think it'd be more than comfortable for them, especially with AB de Villiers in the middle order. However, it appears that the pitch was a bit of a minefield, as South Africa were still short of the target after 48 overs (albeit by just one run). Bangladesh decided to bowl Tamim Iqbal (who had never bowled a ball in his entire ODI career at that point), who was promptly smashed for six by AB. For the second case, it's time to return to our old friend Cephas Zhuwao (the guy who averages 1.00 with the ball in T20Is). This ODI took place between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in 2018, and Zimbabwe did decently well in their innings, scoring 246/7. However, Bangladesh were left requiring three runs from 36 balls, so Cephas Zhuwao was brought into the Zimbabwe attack (presumably due to his stellar T20I record). It didn't work, as Mohammad Mithun hit a long-hop for six. I don't think figures of 0.1-6-0 would be regarded as too unusual in T20Is (it's happened three times if you're curious), so now it's time to consider the two occasions on which a bowler has taken a wicket in a T20I innings despite bowling just one ball. The first such situation happened in a 2012 T20I between England and South Africa. A rain-affected match saw the Saffers score 77/5 from nine overs, which England then had to chase down within their nine overs. However, after four overs, the rain started to pour down again, and since five overs is needed for a result, South Africa tried to continue bowling by bringing on Morne Morkel. England, for their part, required twelve runs for a victory (or thirteen if a wicket fell) thanks to the very simple and very intuitive Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method. Unfortunately, the match had to be abandoned as soon as Morkel took the wicket of Luke Wright on the first ball of the over as the rain just continued to drop. Morkel ended up with innings figures of 0.1-0-0-1. The second instance is special for a particular reason: We've seen examples of a bowler finishing with figures of 0.1-0-0-1, but this is the one and only time in the history of international cricket that a bowler has ended with innings figures of 0.1-0-1-1. How is that even possible? Well, allow me to tell the story. Before I begin, have a guess at which bowler achieved this feat. I have to say personally that if Kohli's zeroth-ball wicket is my favourite story of the bunch, this is my second-favourite. Out of all the bowlers who have played international cricket, I find it fitting that this particular bowler is the only one to have achieved these unusual figures. In a way, they represent a perfect microcosm of his international career in a way that no other innings bowling figures do. The year was 2009, and Australia was touring England and Scotland. After 20 overs, the Aussies had managed a total of 145/4, which was a pretty decent total for the time. However, England's innings was delayed due to rain, but the target remained 146 from 20 overs. England's two greatest all-rounders, Ravi Bopara and Joe Denly, opened that day (the latter making his T20I debut), but poor old Dendulkar was dismissed by Brett Lee in the first over for a golden duck. Then came the second over, with Bopara on strike. The person bowling? None other than Mitchell 'bowls to the left, bowls to the right' Johnson. The very first delivery by Johnson was a wide. How typical. Of course, the partisan England crowd did not hesitate to jeer Johnson for this (this was before that infamous 2010-11 Ashes during which we first heard that chant). Much like in the Ashes, however, it was Mitch who got the last laugh, as he then dismissed Bopara on his very next delivery. Unfortunately, the match was then immediately abandoned due to rain, leaving Johnson as the only bowler in the history of international cricket to finish an innings with figures of 0.1-0-1-1. A wide followed by a wicket; I don't think any two deliveries have summed up a bowler's entire career like those two did. Speaking of which, I'll briefly discuss entire careers rather than just individual innings. In ODIs, six bowlers have bowled just one ball in their entire career (though Australia's Wally Edwards holds the unique distinction of having his sole delivery be a dot ball, even though looking at the scorecard, I can't for the life of me figure out how), whereas in T20Is, four bowlers have achieved this feat. This has yet to be achieved in Tests, however. The next person to bowl their first ball in Test cricket should thus retire due to a "permanent injury" and go down in history as the only one-ball wonder in Tests.
Participation Trophies
So far, we've mostly been looking at bowlers taking wickets, as that tends to be the entire point of bowlers. However, for some bowlers, taking wickets is optional, and it's amazing how long some bowlers can keep on going without dismissing a single batsman. In a way, they ought to be praised for their perseverance, even if their bowling clearly isn't up to scratch. Firstly, there are Test matches. West Indian all-rounder Denis Atkinson (who could apparently bowl both right-arm medium and right-arm offbreak) holds the record for the most balls bowled in a single Test innings without taking any wickets. The year was 1957 and the Windies were up against England in the first Test of a five-match series. Atkinson actually took 1/30 in his first innings, but it then unravelled in the second. This particular Test match was bizarre in so many ways. Following the first two innings, England were behind by 288 runs and seemed to face certain defeat. However, a mammoth fourth-wicket partnership of 411 runs between Colin Cowdrey and the captain Peter May (which is still the highest ever partnership by England for any wicket) turned the match on its head, and England declared on 583/4. The partnership lasted for 8 hours 20 minutes, with May finishing on 285* after batting for nearly ten hours! Think the Buttler-Crawley partnership against Pakistan, but on steroids. Having been set a target of 296 runs, the West Indies nearly conspired to lose the match, finishing on 72/7 (the world-class quartet of Garry Sobers, Everton Weekes, Frank Worrell and Clyde Walcott somehow made just 48 runs between them in that innings). I'm not sure many Test matches have had the momentum shift that drastically! Anyway, as you can guess, it was during England's second innings in which this unusual record was broken. Poor Denis Atkinson bowled 72 overs, but spare a thought for his partner Sonny Ramadhin, who bowled 98 overs that innings and took two wickets (FYI, that's still the record for the most balls bowled in a single Test match innings, though that record, while frankly incredible, unfortunately isn't 'unusual' enough to make this list). If the name Sonny Ramadhin rings a bell then that might be because he was the same guy who bowled 72 overs in that Test match in 1950 when John Goddard bowled six maiden overs out of six while trying to prevent the draw; the poor guy just can't catch a break, can he? Anyway, back to Atkinson. Unlike Ramadhin, he failed to take any wickets, but can you blame him? The West Indies didn't take the second new ball until 96 overs had passed, and they then proceeded to bowl 162 overs using the second new ball without ever taking the third, so that can't have helped. At least Atkinson's economy rate was a low 1.90, and he finished with innings figures of 72-29-137-0. Fantastic effort from him, it has to be said, as well as from Ramadhin (again). It should be remembered that Denis Atkinson did in fact take a wicket in the first innings, so who holds the record for the most balls bowled in a single Test match without taking any wickets? For that, we have to go back even further to 1929 where we find an even more bizarre Test match between England and Australia. For one, this happened to be a timeless Test, and is still the longest Test match to be played on Australian soil, lasting nine days in total (though the third day was a rest day, so in actuality, there were only eight days of play). Due to an injury to Herbert Sutcliffe, Douglas Jardine was forced to open alongside a 47-year-old Jack Hobbs. England's innings was very slow, with Jardine scoring 19(126), Wally Hammond scoring 38(100) and Ernest Tyldesley scoring 31(116). Nonetheless, it worked, as England scored 519 in their first innings, with Hobbs and Maurice Leyland scoring centuries (the former top-scored with 142 from 301 balls). England probably felt good about themselves, until it was Australia's turn to bat. Somehow, Australia were even slower than England, scoring at a run-rate of just 1.81 RPO. Particular lowlights included Bill Woodfull's 102(381), Alan Kippax's 38(145), Jack Ryder's 30(125) and Alan Fairfax's 65(242). Even the tailenders got in on the (lack of) action, with Clarrie Grimmett and Percy Hornibrook putting on a partnership of 59 runs, with the former scoring 38(170) and the latter scoring 26(106). Only Don Bradman, with his comparatively swashbuckling 123(247), looked to be positive. Then again, perhaps this should just be expected with timeless Tests and zero pressure to get the match over with. I'm beginning to see why these aren't a thing anymore. I mean, it worked, I guess, as Australia scored 491. Despite all this scoring, England only made 257 runs in their second innings (Jack Hobbs once again top-scored with 65 runs from 126 balls; how the heck he was playing this well in his late 40s, I have no idea), leaving Australia with a target of 286 runs and infinite time in which to achieve it. There was a chance for Bradman to be stumped while on 5*, but the opportunity was missed, and Australia ended up winning comfortably with a score of 287/5 (three of the five wickets were taken by Wally Hammond of all people, though that included the two openers who were essentially nightwatchmen anyway). As I said, a bizarre match, but this is all tangential. England's Maurice Tate bowled 62 overs in Australia's first innings (which somehow was only the third-most) and 38 overs in the second innings, for a total of 100 overs throughout the match. In those 100 overs, he failed to take a single wicket. Let me be clear: That's 600 balls bowled without a single wicket being taken...in one match! He ended up with figures of 100-39-184-0 for the entire match, so he was pretty economical, though that might just have been the result of the Aussies batting quite defensively. An unusual feat for an unusual game. Anyway, that's only two out of the three pieces of the puzzle. Who has bowled the most balls without taking a single wicket in their entire Test career? The answer to that is the Lancashire all-rounder Len Hopwood, who was given an England cap in 1934 following good performances with bat and ball. In his first Test against Australia, he scored just 2(4) in his only innings with the bat and failed to impress with the ball, ending up with match figures of 47-25-62-0. No matter; he can redeem himself in the next match. Except he didn't. In the first innings, he scored 8(50), then was thrashed about in the second innings by Don Bradman, who ended up scoring 304(473). Say, this Bradman fellow seems like a decent batsman (he's still got nothing on Andy Ganteaume and Kurtis Patterson, though). To be fair to Hopwood, he scored 2*(39) in the third innings, but the match was drawn before he could kick on and score his century. He was subsequently dropped and never selected for England again following his poor performances. All in all, Len Hopwood bowled 462 balls in Test cricket without taking a single wicket, which is still the record by quite a distance. I should note that right now, Bangladesh's Khaled Ahmed sits in third place, having bowled 360 balls in Test cricket so far without taking any wickets. Can he be the one to break Hopwood's record? It won't be easy: Even if he reaches the 463-ball mark without taking a wicket, any subsequent wickets will cause him to lose the record. Definitely one to keep an eye on, though (in all seriousness, I hope it clicks for him sooner rather than later; it can't feel good as a bowler to bowl that many deliveries and not have anything to show for it). Now, when it comes to ODIs and T20Is, there is not much use looking at individual innings, as I don't think anyone would find it particularly unusual for a bowler to make it through their allotted overs without taking a single wicket. However, we can look at entire careers, which is precisely what I'm going to do. For ODIs, the record belongs to Sri Lanka's Athula Samarasekera. Selected as an all-rounder, he bowled 56.2 overs (or 338 balls) of medium pace between 1983 and 1989 at an economy rate of 5.16; he never took any ODI wickets. He continued to play in the format until 1994, but never bowled again after 1989. In T20Is, the record-holder is still playing: Behold, 41-year-old fast-medium bowler Anasim Khan from Bahrain! Not only has he bowled 25 overs (or 150 balls) in T20Is without taking any wickets, but he's done so at an economy rate of 8.84. Beyond that, not much is known about him, which tends to be the case with these smaller associate members. On another note, much like with the batting feats post, minnows have began to pop up when it comes to T20Is, as was to be expected when every associate nation received T20I status. Opening up T20Is has had the side effect of increasing the likelihood of these unusual occurrences, so props to the ICC for that. That's it for Part Two. Now for Part Three!
Going through old issues of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and posting highlights in my own words. For anyone interested, I highly recommend signing up for the actual site at f4wonline and checking out the full archives. PREVIOUSLY:
#1 - This will be the last Rewind of 2020. I'm in the process of moving over the next couple of weeks so the Rewind will return on Jan. 6th. And then it'll be done on the 13th, because there's only 2 Rewinds left...
#2 - Thanks to everybody who nominated me and/or the Rewind for the Wreddit Awards. I <3 y'all.
#3 - Wanted to offer my condolences to Dave and his family on the loss of his mother. I lost my own mom when I was young so I always have something of an extra dash of sympathy for people who lose their mothers, no matter how late in life. Rest in peace Mama Meltzer.
Okay, on with the show!
This week, we get the full super-length obituary for Mr. Wrestling, who passed away last week. Apparently last week's obit wasn't enough, so this week Dave drops another 7,000+ word history of his life and career, along with a complete list of all his titles and accomplishments. Those of you familiar with the Observer will know that the obituary pieces are always a highlight. Dave is a historian at heart and at his best when he's diving deep into into history of wrestling. He's got multiple books compiling these obituaries and they're excellent. But we also covered most of this last week and I'm struggling to get these Rewinds finished as it is. That being said, this is a magnificent read and I highly recommend it if you're interested and have an Observer subscription.
It has been widely reported in Japanese media that K-1 promoter Kazuyoshi Ishii is expected to be arrested soon on tax evasion charges, allegedly owing the government $1.7 million in back taxes. The rumors have been circulating for awhile, but K-1 had their big Grand Prix Finals show at the Tokyo Dome, which drew a massive sellout crowd and word is the government was holding off on the arrest, and the media was holding off on the story, because they didn't want to hurt the show, because it was expected to bring in a lot of tax revenue for the city of Tokyo. So it was kept quiet until after the show, but the day after it took place, the story blew up everywhere. This isn't unusual, as Japanese media is notorious for trying to protect big events such as this, whereas in the U.S., it would be a different matter and everyone would be racing to see who could break the story first. Just another difference in cultures. The claim is that Ishii brought in around $6 million in income that he never reported between 1997 and 2000 and, therefore, never paid taxes on. For his part, Ishii naturally denies the allegations and claims much of that was spent on bringing in foreign talent for shows and that the government is failing to take that into account. Ishii is basically the Vince McMahon of Japan. He not only runs K-1, but he has several huge stars (most notably right now being Bob Sapp) under exclusive contract and as a promoter, loans Sapp out to PRIDE, NJPW, AJPW, and others, turning him into Japan's biggest sports star. Basically, all these other companies can run their mid-range shows, but any show in Japan that has filled up a stadium in the last couple of years, Ishii was usually the one behind it. Ishii has also been responsible for bringing in Bill Goldberg and others for big shows (since we won't get to find out how this story plays out before the end of 2002: Ishii does indeed get charged with tax evasion. In 2004, he was convicted and sentenced to 22 months in prison. But he stayed out on bail and spent 3 years appealing his sentence to no avail. In 2007, he finally went to prison and served a little over 1 year before being released in 2008).
Speaking of the K-1 Grand Prix, Bob Sapp once again faced arguably the greatest kickboxer who ever lived, Ernesto Hoost, and for the second time, Sapp defeated him by referee stoppage in a wild, incredible brawl. Sapp absorbed an insane amount of punishment, from brutal leg kicks and multiple head punches but he kept going. Sapp, not exactly the best striker in the world, was swinging wild haymakers that mostly missed, but when they connected, boy did they. When the ref stopped it, Hoost was furious, and some felt the referee stopped it too soon to protect Sapp, who is the big star. And they may be right because Sapp was completely gassed and looked like a desperate man out there. He showed little defensive skill and doesn't have much in the way of technique. But the facts can't be denied: no matter how sloppy and unpolished he is, Sapp has now beaten the greatest heavyweight kickboxer of all time...twice. But Sapp was injured in the fight (broken hand) and had to pull out of the rest of the tournament, so even though he lost, Hoost was allowed to replace Sapp in the next round and move on. And Hoost went on to win the whole tournament, defeating Jerome LeBanner in the finals and claiming the $400,000 bonus. That sure seems kinda unfair. Anyway, the Grand Prix show ended up being the most successful wrestling/MMA show in Japan since the 1976 Inoki vs. Muhammad Ali fight. It was viewed by approximately 47 million people on TV. Everyone went in expecting Hoost to avenge his prior loss to Sapp, and that's what drew the crowd, but nope. And the result is that Sapp came out an even bigger star than he already was and Hoost still won the biggest tournament in K-1 history which seems to set up an obvious 3rd fight. The injury to Sapp wreaks havoc on Antonio Inoki's plans however. Sapp was scheduled to face NJPW wrestler Tadao Yasuda in an MMA fight at Inoki's New Year's Eve show in a couple of weeks, and because he's Bob Sapp, that was naturally the big draw for the show. But that's likely off the table now (nope, Sapp still fought him and still won). Sapp was also booked to work NJPW's Jan. 4th Tokyo Dome show next month, no word on how this may affect his ability to do a pro wrestling match (he doesn't end up doing that show, go figure). Anyway, here's the Sapp/Hoost fight and yeah, it's freakin' wild. The rise of Bob Sapp is probably the most interesting story of 2002 to me.
One of Japanese wrestling's longest traditions, the end-of-year tag team tournaments in both AJPW and NJPW, were complete bombs this year. AJPW's Real World Tag League tournament dates back to 1977 and has always been their premiere tournament. This year, it was won by Satoshi Kojima and Taiyo Kea, even though Kea went into the final match with a torn ACL and he didn't do much. He will be having surgery this week that's expected to keep him out 6 months or more, meaning they'll have to vacate the tag titles they just won. The final show, usually a guaranteed sell-out, drew a paltry 6,500 fans to Budokan Hall, the smallest crowd AJPW has drawn to that arena in the 30 year history of the company. Muto's recent changes to AJPW seem to be trying to modernize the company in American-style, with big video screens and pyro and all that gaga, and AJPW fans don't seem to be into it one bit. During the whole tour, which drew poorly for every show, people were making comparisons to the dying days of WCW. As for NJPW, they changed the tag tournament this year to a weird trios triathlon format that confused fans and didn't sell out a single show for the entire tour and the finals only drew 3,800. Needless to say, dark days for both AJPW and NJPW right now in 2002.
At a recent CMLL show at Arena Mexico, there was an incident with Negro Casas punching announcer Leobardo Magadan and breaking his nose. While this might sound like an angle, word is it was legit and that there are expected to be lawsuits filed and legal consequences. Casas was legitimately suspended by the commission and the TV network that Magadan works for has threatened to sue CMLL over the incident. Magadan and Casas have spoken on the phone since and Casas reportedly apologized. There has been bad blood between them for awhile and apparently Magadan said the wrong thing while Casas was in the wrong mood and got a punch to the face (I researched this and it apparently was real. Magadan not only had a broken nose but a detached retina. No idea how the legal stuff worked out or how much trouble Casas got into though).
NJPW is holding a press conference next month for some shows and, for some reason, Steven Seagal is expected to appear. Yes, that Steven Seagal. Which gives me an excuse to post this:
All Japan Women, the 3rd oldest promotion in the world (behind CMLL and WWE) is doing a 35th anniversary show (they didn't make it much longer. AJW ends up shutting down in 2005 after 37 years. At the time, it was the oldest wrestling promotion in Japan. Of course, since then, both NJPW and AJPW have surpassed it).
XPW signed an exclusive 3-year lease on the old ECW Arena in Philadelphia that will last through the end of 2006, with an option to extend it another 2 years to 2008 at the end of that term. This effectively prevents CZW, 3PW, or any other promotions from running shows there. However, if XPW goes out of business, loses their athletic commission license, or stops regularly running shows there, the lease could be terminated early by the venue. Word is XPW is paying $8,000-per-month for the rights. They plan to renovate the arena and add an entrance ramp and make some other changes (yeah this doesn't last long. By February, XPW starts missing payments and the lease is revoked).
WWA's latest PPV in Glasgow, Scotland saw Lex Luger defeat Sting to win the WWA title in a short, terrible match that was basically botched from start to finish. Jeff Jarrett interfered, hitting Sting with a guitar but the guitar barely broke. Earlier in the match, the referee botched a pinfall also. The ref knew Luger was winning and he didn't see Sting kick out of a pin, so he thought that was the finish and counted 3 and called for the bell. It led to some confusion and they ended up restarting the match. A second guitar shot to Sting a few minutes later finally broke the guitar. Elsewhere on the show, Jeff Jarrett beat Nathan Jones, also with a guitar shot, to retain the NWA title. A Sabu/Perry Saturn/Simon Diamond match saw two cheap ass tables break before they were supposed to, visibly pissing off Sabu. This show was taped and won't air live, so they may be able to edit a lot of the fuck-ups from the show, but word is Luger looked awful and is pretty much hopeless no matter how much editing they do. And Nathan Jones is incredibly green and just as hopeless. Buff Bagwell was also on the tour and, in case you're wondering what he's up to, apparently he caused such a disturbance on the flight overseas that police were called and detained him after he landed in England but was eventually released.
Ring of Honor ran another show in Philadelphia that drew kinda poorly compared to previous ROH shows in the area. It was also kind of a lackluster show. Colt Cabana defeated CM Punk in a match that was the ROH debut for both men. Matches with AJ Styles, Bryan Danielson, Paul London, and others were all decent, but nothing special. Main event featured the ROH debut of Abdullah The Butcher teaming with Homicide in a bloodbath against Carnage Crew.
Dave also notes that ROH parent company RF Video recently settled a lawsuit with PRIDE. Apparently RF Video had been selling bootleg tapes of PRIDE and AJPW shows. If you recall, earlier this year, tax-dodger Kazoyoshi Ishii secured the exclusive rights to sell and market PRIDE and AJPW videos in the United States and they apparently went after RF Video for doing it illegally. Settlement is confidential, but RF Video reportedly had to pay a good bit of money. A magazine in Japan reported that the settlement was for $2 million per year for the next 5 years, but needless to say, that's ridiculous to the point that it can't even possibly be believed.
The latest TNA PPV saw an allegedly "unscripted" incident between Vince Russo and Roddy Piper. Sigh. Piper showed up at the show and cut a promo and accused Russo of being responsible for killing Owen Hart, among other things. Piper's appearance was a surprise so he could get a big surprise pop. So TNA could have advertised him and probably gotten some much-needed money and PPV buys, but nope. Russo later cut another promo, trashing Piper for using Owen's death to push his book. Where the shoot/work aspect of this begins and ends is unknown. Despite claims to the contrary, a couple of people definitely knew Piper was there and that he was going to cut a promo on Russo, although most of the locker room and even the announcers didn't. As for the back and forth about Owen, no one seems to know if that was truly Piper's own feelings or if it was scripted, but considering it's Russo, people are obviously suspicious. Word is this was just a one-time appearance for Piper to promote his book, which makes it even more stupid if he's not coming back and this isn't going anywhere. A lot of viewers have been going online and making it known how tasteless they felt it was for TNA to use Owen Hart's death as part of a storyline. But it wouldn't be the first time. Back when WCW was still alive and they were doing a show at Kemper Arena, Russo pitched an idea to show Bret Hart walking around in the rafters. Needless to say, that did not happen and Hart didn't even appear on the show, but Russo wanted to do it (okay, the WCW idea is appalling, but in Russo's defense—and man, I hate defending Vince Russo—I believe it's come out over the years that the TNA/Piper segment really was Piper going into business for himself and wasn't just another dumb Russo angle. It was just Piper shooting on someone he didn't like and trying to sell books).
TNA is talking of taking their show on the road next year and running a few of their weekly PPVs from places outside of their Nashville arena. Dave thinks this is a pretty bad idea. It's expensive and they're already struggling just to sell a few hundred tickets in their home base and most of the shows are heavily papered (for once, TNA was smart here. They stuck with Nashville until 2004, at which point they moved to Orlando for Impact. They didn't actually start going "on the road" until 2006.
Paul Bearer, using his old pre-WWE name Percy Pringle, also debuted on the TNA show. The plan is for him to be a manager, likely for Malice (Abyss The Wall). But Dave thinks that will just make Malice look like a low-rent Undertaker (I don't think he ever really managed anybody or did much of anything aside from a few appearances).
BG James (Road Dogg) apologized to the TNA staff at a production meeting this week over his use of the word "f*ggot" on TV last week. But he never apologized publicly and TNA never made any kind of statement on it. It was just James apologizing to management backstage and nothing more.
WWE is pushing hard to bring in Goldberg for Wrestlemania, and they've made a strong enough pitch that Goldberg is said to be seriously considering it. Dave thinks it's kinda dumb that WWE waited until 2 years after WCW folded, after all the "Goldberg" chants have stopped, and most American fans have kinda forgotten about him. And suddenly, now they get serious about bringing him in, because they clearly need him more than he needs them. Dave says if they had just bitten the bullet and spent the money to bring in Goldberg from day 1 of the Invasion, he would have paid for himself and then some with PPV matches against Austin and Rock and the Invasion might not have been a flop and maybe business wouldn't be collapsing. Probably still would have been though because it was more than one dumb decision that has gotten them to this point. Anyway, Goldberg still doesn't want to work a full schedule, so the discussions right now seem to hinge on bringing him in for a one-off match at Wrestlemania (and one would presume that would be against Austin, unless WWE just hates money or something). But of course, if that match happens, you have to talk one of them (almost certainly Goldberg) into doing the job and then that'll be a whole other argument.
Shawn Michaels is planning to work some Raw house shows soon, since he's the champion now. Whether or not his back can hold up to it is the big question, but word is he wants to work more matches and give it a shot. He's defending the title against Triple H in a 3 Stages of Hell match at the PPV.
Notes from Raw: Batista beat RVD in a 2 minute match by DQ that the crowd was dead for and Dave is amazed that they managed to kill RVD off this fast. That Triple H feud did him no favors at all. Ric Flair, who has been pitching to cut a promo on Shawn Michaels for weeks, finally got the chance and delivered a classic Flair promo that did more in 10 minutes to get Michaels over with fans who may not remember him than WWE has done in months. It was the best promo on Raw in ages and by far the highlight of the show. Randy Orton's RNN segments continue to be great. And everything else was varying degrees of average, boring, forgettable, or bad. Nothing much to note here.
Notes from Smackdown: main event of the show was 4.5 star match with Angle/Benoit/Edge/Eddie Guerrero in a 4-way that went for the last half hour of the show. Can't hate on that. Edge was tremendous in his selling and his comebacks and Kurt Angle proved why he's probably the best wrestler in the world today. Just excellent. Lesnar got exposed in a promo, showing he's still not ready to hold up his end of mic work (yeah, he's never been great at that). And of course, the show ended with Torrie Wilson going to Dawn Marie's hotel room and seemingly gave in to Dawn's lesbian advances in order to prevent her from marrying her dad. But of course, the show went off the air with that being left vague so you don't know what actually happened. This wasn't WWE's idea. They filmed 2 different versions of this, both of which went further than UPN was comfortable with and they ended up editing the hell out of it so what you saw on TV was a very tamed down, edited version of what was filmed. The "uncensored" version is expected to air on the PPV.
Godfather was released by WWE this week. His contract was set to expire in a few weeks anyway and wasn't being renewed, so WWE decided to cut him early, but still paid him his last few weeks. After he was released, they tried to talk him into coming back for one final appearance, in which he would participate in an angle where Scott Steiner beat him up. Realizing that it was their way of burying his character on the way out the door, Godfather tried to hold them up for extra perks, requesting first class airfare and a limo. WWE balked at that so it didn't end up happening. Dave figures TNA will grab him ASAP (surprisingly, no. I can't believe Russo didn't jump at the chance to do his version of the pimp gimmick without Vince McMahon limitations). Ron Simmons' contract is also expiring soon and isn't being renewed, though there's talk of hiring him as an agent.
Jeff Hardy and Justin Credible have both been suspended for repeatedly showing up late to events. Of course, Hardy in particular is still a star, so he's only been suspended from house shows, they're still using him on TV. Which is probably perfectly fine with Jeff anyway since his heart clearly hasn't been in it for a long time. Jamal of 3 Minute Warning has also been taken off TV for now, reportedly due to some legal issues but Dave doesn't know the details.
Rey Mysterio is out getting arthroscopic knee surgery. There was some drama backstage over who should be the one to "injure" him on TV to write him off. The original plan was for Benoit to be the one, leading to Mysterio returning at the Rumble to get revenge. Then it was changed to be Matt Hardy and that was the plan, which would have roped him into the top of the Smackdown card along with guys like Benoit, Angle, Eddie, etc. (basically, this would have created the Smackdown Seven). But then Vince swooped in and decided.....Albert! This was pretty controversial, since most people see Albert as a big, boring guy with no charisma who has been rotting away on Velocity for months who was only given the nod because business is down and when business is down, Vince goes with big guys. When Matt Hardy found out that his big break got taken away from him in favor of Albert, he was so pissed that some people thought he was going to walk out of the TV tapings. Hardy even went on his website and wrote a blog post vaguely addressing it and his unhappiness over it. Michael Hayes was able to talk Hardy off the ledge and keep him from walking out. Several other wrestlers went to Vince and tried to go to bat for Hardy, most vocally Edge and Rikishi, who argued that Hardy had earned the spot. But Vince stuck to his guns, and Albert ended up "injuring" Rey to write him off TV.
Remember a couple of weeks ago when WWE put out a press release personally attacking the World Wildlife Fund's lawyer? Well, the lawyer is said to be looking into filing a defamation lawsuit against WWE over what they said about him (much of which, indeed, was outright false or, at the very least, purposefully misleading). Considering WWE has already gotten their asses handed to them at every turn in this legal battle, to the point where even the judges in the case seemed irritated at them, to put out that release seems like the height of arrogance. There's now concern within the company that a defamation lawsuit, if filed, could end up being costly because, much like the original lawsuit, this is pretty cut and dry and WWE is obviously in the wrong here (I'm not sure how this ever turned out).
On Tough Enough, one of the contestants (Jonah) faked a neck injury as a "rib" and the coaches (Bill Demott, Al Snow, and Ivory) all laughed it up like it was hilarious. Lance Storm went on his website and posted about it, saying if there's one thing you don't joke about in this business, it's injuries. He said he can't imagine how the other wrestler who thought he had seriously hurt Jonah must have felt and said he didn't understand why the coaches acted like it was so funny. Storm said not only himself, but most of the WWE locker room were offended and didn't find it funny. "How do you think a guy like Darren Drozdov would feel watching this show, making a joke out of a supposed neck injury?" he wrote.
Paul Bearer did an interview recently talking about his leaving WWE and his wife's battle with cancer. He didn't have a lot of nice things to say. "They were not as understanding as you might have been led to believe. I only received two calls from anyone in the WWE management the entire time my wife was fighting cancer. Both calls were made by Stephanie McMahon. I only received a handful of calls from my so-called 'friends.' Undertaker may have called twice, and that was after I told the world he never called. It’s out of sight, out of mind in 'rasslin. As far as payroll is concerned, you must understand I was under a guaranteed money contract. They had to pay me. It certainly wasn’t a favor by any means. I didn’t have insurance. Dianna’s treatments cost close to $100,000. That cleaned me out. Did anybody offer any assistance? Please. All that glitters is not gold, friends." Dave notes that Paul Bearer and Undertaker had a recent falling out also. Elsewhere in the interview, Bearer said Vince McMahon "and his stooges" made his life a living hell over his weight gain and bullied him about it constantly. Sounds about right.
Gail Kim made her WWE debut at a house show, beating Dawn Marie in a bra and panties match. Dave says Paul Heyman was the one responsible for getting her signed (no word here about how Vince thought she was ugly and Jim Ross had to tell him about how popular Asian porn sites were to convince him to sign her).
COMING JAN. 6:more on WWE/Goldberg discussions, Bob Sapp wins Japan MVP award, WWE Armageddon PPV fallout, and oh yeah....Dave reviews Hulk Hogan's book. Only 2 Rewinds left...
The numbers don't tell the full story of how Senzatela has pitched. One inning of defensive miscues (but no errors) in his last outing raised his ERA more than a run and increased his opponents' batting average by 34 points.
Astros
Greinke has allowed one earned run and 12 hits in 12 1/3 innings in his past two starts. He’s gone deeper into games and exceeded his pitch count in each of his previous outings this season.
Rebuilding the Pittsburgh Pirates: Part 1 - A Surprising First Season
I wrote a Franchise Startup Guide a few months ago and have decided to put my strategies to the test with the Pittsburgh Pirates, a team I’ve never played as before. The Pirates are low on talent, money, and fans, which makes them an ideal challenge to rebuild. I’ll list all of the moves I made, explain the rationale behind those moves, and then go over how the team performed. If there’s interest, I’ll do a write up for future seasons. This is a list of the player salaries when I inherited the team. The team doesn’t have a lot of talent, but there’s only one player with a guaranteed contract for next season and the largest contract for this season is $9m, so there’s a lot of flexibility. The team has ~ $10m in available funds for free agents, but they’re spending below the league baseline for scouting and player development, so my moves will focus on shedding salary to max out both of those. The team owner isn’t very demanding, but he isn’t going to offer much financial support, so increasing budget will be an uphill battle. I’ll have to be very careful with how I spend money. \I decided to do this write-up after completing most of the 2020 offseason, so player screenshots are from after the 2020 season* Move #1: I fired every staff member and replaced them with coaches/staff that better fit my organizational philosophy. I hired the best trainer, scout, and managers available, and hired groundball focused pitching and neutral focused hitting coaches. This cost a bit of money the first year, but it’s worth it in the long run. Move #2: Pirates Receive: Austin Hedges, Drew Pomeranz (85% retained) Padres Receive: Gregory Polanco, Keone Kela Polanco is a good player, but a team with our financial situation can’t afford to pay him that much. He has 3/$31.5m guaranteed remaining on his deal, with a fourth-year team option for 13.5m. Kela is solid but doesn’t fit my organizational philosophy and is an upcoming free agent. Trimming his 3.7m helps a lot with how tight the financials are. In return we got the best defensive catcher in the game and a low risk/high reward reliever on a very friendly deal. Pomeranz will average a little over a million per year for the next four years, so if he pans out it’s great, but if not, I should be able to absorb the hit of releasing him. Move #3: Pirates Receive: Wil Crowe Nationals Receive: Chris Archer This move is a straight salary dump. Archer is a quality starting pitcher, but we just can’t afford to pay him $9m this season. Factor in his age and the general injury proneness of starting pitchers and it’s probably better to move on sooner than later. I was hoping to get a better prospect in return, but Washington was the only team willing to absorb Archer’s entire salary. Move #4: Pirates Receive: Mike Montgomery (85% retained), Richard Lovelady, Scott Barlow Royals Receive: Nick Burdi Nick Burdi is a good reliever, but injury prone, so I decided to buy low on Mike Montgomery. Montgomery doesn’t stand out in any one area but does fit the general profile of pitchers that work well in my system. The Royals were pretty much willing to give him away for free, so I got two solid relievers in the deal as well. Move #5: Pirates Receive: Freddy Galvis (75% retained) Reds Receive: Kevin Newman I did increase payroll a bit with this deal, but high-level defense at shortstop is essential for my system. Galvis is one of the best defenders in the game, has the captain personality trait, and has iron man durability. He checks a lot of boxes for what I want in a player. Newman is good and under team control, but he doesn’t excel defensively at any position. He doesn’t have the range I want for middle infield, the arm for third, or the height for first. Also, he doesn’t really hit well enough for a first baseman. Move #6: Pirates Receive: A.J. Minter, Kyle Wright, Braden Shewmake, Corbin Clouse, Luke Jackson Braves Receive: Josh Bell This was another financially motivated move. Josh Bell is a very good hitter, but I still need to trim more salary. His 4.8m for this season isn’t too bad, but I definitely won’t be able to pay his 10.5m arbitration estimate next year, or the 14.2m the season after that. Factor in how easy it is to get solid production at first base, and it doesn’t really make sense to keep him. I got quite a haul from the Braves in return. Kyle Wright will immediately slot into the starting rotation, Shewmake looks like he could be a starting position player in a year or two, and the other three will fill bullpen roles. In a few years this deal could look like quite the steal. Move #7: Pirates Receive: Reese McGuire, Joe Panik, Alejandro Kirk, $5 million cash Blue Jays Receive: Adam Frazier, Michael Feliz I trimmed even more salary with this deal and added some cash, but I’m most excited about adding Reese McGuire. He gives me a nice righty/lefty combo at catcher with him and Hedges. Panik is cheap and looks like he can be converted to first base, and Kirk should be a nice trade chip in the future. Frazier is good, but I’m concerned about his Turn DP rating for playing a middle infield spot, and he doesn’t have the arm for third. Feliz doesn’t fit my system so I just wanted to dump his salary. Move #8: Pirates Receive: Abraham Toro, $1 million cash Astros Receive: Jacob Stallings With McGuire and Hedges I don’t need Stallings, so I got the best prospect offered. Toro doesn’t look like a future star, but he should be fine as a backup. Final Financial Situation: After all of these moves, I have enough money to max out the scouting and player development budgets, but nothing else. I had to set the draft and Int FA budgets to zero. I’ll have to be careful with who I draft this year, and skip out on signing any Int FAs, but I think it’ll be worth it in the long run. Batters: Primary Lineup vs. RHP when Healthy (\DH enabled in both leagues)* This isn’t a very good offensive lineup. There aren’t any real power hitters or high OBP guys, mostly just average to below average hitters. I was able to platoon and hide guys decently though, so they scored enough to win. CF – Jarrod Dyson - Dyson isn’t as bad as his ratings in the image suggest. He regressed a pretty good bit after the season. But he still isn’t a great leadoff hitter. His baserunning is good, but I would like a bit better OBP. His defense was solid, but not as good as I want. 1B – Joe Panik - Panik was a throw-in in the McGuire deal with the Blue Jays and performed pretty well considering what he cost. He had no experience at 1B at the beginning of the season, but by the end was a very good defender there. He shouldn’t be batting second though; this shows how poor the offense was. LF – Bryan Reynolds - Probably my best overall batter. I’ll more than likely bring him back, but he’ll probably perform well enough sooner than later to play himself out of my price range. DH – Reese McGuire - McGuire started a lot of games at catcher, but he was my best option at DH against most RHPs, so he started there when not catching. Toro filled this role against LHPs. RF – Socrates Brito - Socrates was about as average as you can get, which is perfectly fine if that’s your expectation for the player, and it was. Unfortunately, he missed a lot of games due to injury. 2B – J.T. Riddle - Riddle was starting primarily for his defense, but actually performed pretty well at the plate. I don’t see any reason why he won’t be back. 3B – Ke’Bryan Hayes - Hayes didn’t perform as well as I hoped, but he’s young and still has a lot of room to grow. I expect him to make a big jump next season. SS – Freddy Galvis - Galvis was amazing for me. He played elite defense at SS and had an OPS+ of 113. Spoiler alert for next season, but I wasn’t able to keep him because the Brewers gave him 5/$60m. I’m not mad at him though. Get the bag if you can. C – Austin Hedges - I knew Hedges wasn’t going to give me much offensively, so not too surprising there. I was disappointed that he missed a significant number of games due to injury, because I was trying to keep his workload time moderate. Bench Abraham Toro - Toro started at DH against RHP and backed up 1B. He hit pretty well and I’m hoping he can contribute as well next season. Guillermo Heredia - Guillermo backed up all three outfield positions and started in RF against LHP. He performed pretty well for a bench guy. Erik Gonzalez - Gonzalez spent a lot of time injured and when he did play, he struggled. His positional versatility was key for keeping the starters rested though. Injury Replacements Alejandro Kirk, Jason Martin, Cole Tucker, Colin Moran - I’m not going to go over each of these guys individually. I’ll just say that they held down the fort decently while filling in for injured players. Pitchers: Pitching Staff when Healthy I had two starts by a player that wasn’t part of the opening day starting rotation, so to say my injury luck was good would be an understatement. I had to shuffle a couple of guys in and out of the bullpen, but for the most part they were healthy too. The pitching staff performed as well as I could’ve hoped for. SP – Mike Montgomery - Montgomery was a bit of a disappointment. I really thought I was going to get more out of him, but he did stay healthy and eat a lot of innings. SP – Joe Musgrove SP – Mitch Keller - The hotshot young starter. He missed a couple of starts early in the season due to nagging injuries, so I reduced his pitch count to 80 once healthy. More than likely, he’s trade bait. SP – Trevor Williams SP – Kyle Wright CL – Drew Pomeranz - Pomeranz missed a decent number of games, but I think he’s going to be good value for the duration of his contract. Hopefully I’ll have someone better to fill the closer role before his contract expires. SU – Scott Barlow SU – Luke Jackson - I was hoping for more from Jackson, but I know reliever results are very volatile, so I’ll just hope for better next season. MR – A.J. Minter MR – Richard Lovelady MR – Dovydas Neverauskas MR – Blake Weiman MR – Geoff Hartlieb - Really the only reliever that stood out in a negative way. He might be replaced before next season. LR – Chris Stratton Injury Replacements Chad Kuhl Corbin Clouse Season Results: I felt alright about the team I’d assembled and thought they had a good chance to finish .500, but they far exceeded expectations and won 89 games. This was 4 games better than their Pythagorean record, so that coupled with the amazing pitcher injury luck I wouldn’t expect to see this same result again. I’m anticipating playing closer to .500 next year, and maybe even having a losing record. We lost to the Nationals 3-1 in the division series of the playoffs, which wasn’t surprising considering the smoke and mirrors team I built. Top Prospects: Most of the top prospects in the upper levels of my system were promoted to the major league team, so there’s not much high-level talent there. As for the lower levels, there isn’t really anyone that stands out, but I’m hoping a couple of guys develop in the next couple of seasons. Hopefully I can trade for some minor league talent in the next few years, but if not, my draftees will be up eventually. Travis Swaggerty – Swaggerty doesn’t currently project to be a star, but he should be a plus corner outfield defender and average hitter at the major league level. More than likely, he will start next season. Drew Romo – I selected Romo in the first round (7th overall) of the 2020 draft. This was a pretty big reach just based on talent, but he usually ends up being the best defensive catcher in the league. Add to that the fact I had no money for signing draft picks, it made sense to take him with his low signing bonus demand. Future Outlook: I think we’re in a pretty good position going forward. We have no bad salaries, just completed an 89 win season, have rising fan interest, and the ability to bring back every player we want. Even though we won 89 games this team is not a contender. We 100% fall into the pretender category. That’s perfectly fine though. I didn’t build this team to win a title, I built them to win as many regular season games as possible to raise fan interest, which will lead to a higher budget and better players. To win at the highest level you need top-end talent, and this team has none of it. I expect us to really contend around year five. Thanks for sticking around until the end if you read all of this. Feel free to ask any questions or provide any tips or suggestions. Also, feel free to suggest any improvements to the format of the write-up.
Detroit Manager Jason Varitek wins Manager of the Year!
SP Casey Mize finishes 2nd in CYA voting.
SP Kumar Rocker receives CYA consideration.
RF Yaya Chentouf finished 5th in MVP voting.
2B Willi Castro and SP Casey Mize received MVP consideration.
SP Kumar Rocker represents the USA in the WBC.
RP Brett de Geus represents the USA in the WBC.
3B Jordan Diaz represents Columbia in the WBC.
CF Jairo Pomares represents Cuba in the WBC.
2B Willi Castro represents Puerto Rico in the WBC.
Offseason Transactions
Owner gave us a $14,000,000 budget increase, but we have huge arbitration estimates for Castro and Mize. League News:
RF Ramon Laureano signs with the Cubs for $130M/6.
C Francisco Mejia signs with the Brewers for $24M/7.
3B Yoan Moncada signs with the Cardinals for $136M/5.
RP Joe Jimenez signs with the Cardinals for $5.6M/2.
SP Chris Paddack signs with the Phillies for $103M/5.
SP Matthew Boyd signs with the Astros for $32M/3.
1B Josh Bell signs with the Twins for $13.4M/2.
SS Trevor Story signs with the Nationals for $116M/5.
SP Pablo Lopez signs with the Phillies for $113M/5.
SS Carlos Correa signs with the Rockies for $74M/5.
SP Tyler Mahle signs with the Red Sox for $82M/5.
SS Willy Adames stays with the Rays for $111M/6.
SP Dinelson Lamet signs with the Rangers for $92M/5.
SP C.C. Sabathia and OF Manny Ramirez make the HoF.
Detroit Departures:
RP Drew Carlton
SP/RP Sandy Alcantara
Detroit Trades: Trade #1 Detroit receives: SP Jackson Phipps, $3,500,000 Oakland receives: SP Franklin Perez, RP Hector Flores, RP Luis Araujo I've been meaning to deal Perez for awhile now due to his fragile status and after seeing that he couldn't cut it in the rotation for me, I decided to move him. Phipps looked great in the rotation and in the bullpen last year, whereas Perez looked elite in the pen but not in the rotation. I need the cheap, controlled contract in my rotation. Trade #2 Detroit receives: SP Luke Weaver (COL retains 60%), SS Aiverson Rodriguez Colorado receives: C Jake Rogers, 1B Brandon Smith Colorado has been trying to move Weaver all season and I finally decided to see what they wanted. I'm looking for a reliable fifth arm and I think Weaver gives me that. He's had four straight seasons of performance slightly better than league average, including the most recent in a horrible park for pitchers. He's been a bit unlucky according to his FIP vs ERA+, so I'm hopeful he'll be even better for us than he was for the Rockies, plus, it's a one-year rental and Colorado is paying for 60% of the bill. I'm pretty jazzed about Rodriguez too, he had a good enough year in A+ to head to AA next year and he has elite defensive abilities, which I could use in a future short stop. All in all it costs me a first base prospect who can't play the field at all and my backup catcher - which means I can clear the role for Romo to go ahead and come to the major league level. Trade #3 Detroit receives: RP Isaiah Magwood, 2B Cody Schrier, $3,000,000 Arizona receives: 2B Marcus Chiu, SP Beau Burrows Burrows has looked legit for me in AAA the last two seasons, both in relief and as a starter. Chiu is at a logjam at 2B in my prospect pipeline, with both being 28, I don't see them with a future on my team. Burrows may be a steal for the Diamondbacks, but I love the prospects I'm getting in return. Trade #4 Detroit receives: RP Connor Jones, $350,000 St. Louis receives: RF Yusniel Diaz I wanted Diaz to be more for me, but he never really got it done at the MLB level. He continued to be decent in AAA, but I think he's a AAAA guy. Maybe he'll flourish in St. Louis, but I like the chances of Jones being good for me for a bit in the pen. Trade #5 Detroit receives: RP Jorge Alcala (OAK retains 75%) Oakland receives: SP Michael Baumann Alcala was a 2.3 WAR reliever last year and I think he could be even better with Vazquez behind the dish. Baumann is coming off of a 6 month injury - so he could be good, but my scout is out on him and the injury scares me. Trade #6 Detroit receives: RP DL Hall, $1,000,000 Arizona receives: RP David McKay McKay is coming off of a 6 month injury that cost him all of last season and is denying going to AAA. Hall gives me some option years and a nice MLC that I can use as an extra starter or bullpen arm. Trade #7 Detroit receives: RP Andrew Dalquist, SS Layant Tapia Chicago receives: RP David Parkinson I don't have enough spots on my major league roster or my 40 man, so Parkinson is another casualty of this. I grab a couple of prospects to restock the pitching reserves and Tapia helps out some of my more barren levels in the minors right now. Plus it clears the spot on the 40-man and Parkinson hasn't been good in the majors. Trade #8 Detroit receives: RP Levi Kelly, SS Nicolas Perez, $4,000,000 Arizona receives: SP Tarik Skubal Arizona wants Skubal as a starter and I don't think he's going to crack the rotation this year, not with the money I decided to pay Weaver. I may regret that, but Skubal's personality profile leaves a lot to be desired despite his solid year in the rotation last year. Kelly gives me a more natural bullpen arm as his replacement at the major league level, which I like - he's also more cost controlled and younger. Perez has obvious upside - he's a future gold glover at short stop and I'll just pray the hit tool improves to go along with it. Detroit Additions: C Christian Vazquez - I had to give him $7,500,000 over 2 years, presumably due to the gold glove. I wasn't ready to risk moving his ability behind the plate. 2B Willi Castro - I may have jumped the gun here, but I decided to extend Castro. I'll pay him $118M over 5 years, which I believe will be much cheaper than if I'd let him continue through his last arbitration season. I didn't do this with Casey Mize and his initial demands are 40M+, so this is a reaction to that.
Spring Training
We have $11.9M available for the season, $12,000,000 for the draft and $5,500,000 for international amateurs. We're spending the maximum allowed on development.
Regular Season
First Half We're projected to win 94 games this season and finish 10 games back of the Indians. Damn them. That should make us the second best team in the AL, according to the predictions. Willi Castro is projected as a top hitter, while Mize and Manning are projected to be top pitchers. I'm hopeful that Rocker joins that as well. We open against the Astros and take a 4-3 win in extra innings. I hope that we are this tough all season. We start off strong, going 8-1 through our first three series' leading up to a matchup with our division foes in Cleveland, who are also 8-1. I expected a fight, but we punched them in the mouth right away and secured a series sweep. If we can play like this, it's going to be a phenomenal season. Our twelve game winning streak ends with a loss to the Athletics, but we sit at 13-2 following the run, which is better than expected. The Royals are off to a hot start as well and sit in 2nd in the division, but our first matchup with them results in a sweep for us and pushes them 5 games back and into a tie with the Indians. As April ends, we sit at 25-8, a comfortable 4 game lead on the Royals. The Indians are struggling at 16-17 and 9 games back. I expect they'll sort it out though, but we look really nice after April. Notably, Evan White leads the league with a .378 average, but Mike Moustakas is off to a hot start with 18 homeruns for the Twins, an 88 homerun pace. On May 8th we decide to move Jackson Phipps into the pen, who has been struggling, and give Genesis Cabrera a shot in the rotation again, where he hasn't featured heavily since 2022. We also optioned Kyle Dohy to AAA and brought up Jonathan Bowlan again. Into June though and we're sitting pretty at 43-18, 6 games up on the Royals and an astounding 13 games up on the struggling Indians. The team is 1st in runs scored and 1st in runs against, something I'd love to see continue. We also feature the best zone rating and fewest errors, and also have the top base running team. We seem to be doing well. 2025 Draft We're becoming accustomed to picking lower in the draft and this year we have the 26th pick. We select SP Zach Stephens in the first round, RP Mitch Naron in the 2nd, CF Drew Burress in the 3rd, CF Jim O'Connor in the 4th and CF Jerry Turner in the 5th. Second Half We continue rolling into June, but midway through the month we lose Isaac Paredes for two months with a bruised kneecap. He's put up 2.8 WAR and was on pace for 6.3, so that's a tough loss. Luckily we have Jordan Diaz and he's ready to go, so he'll slot in at third base. We bring up Addison Barger. We carry a 63-24 record into July, comfortably sitting in 1st place with a 10 game lead over the Royals. The Indians sit at 43-44 and seem completely out of it, 20 games back of the division. The Red Sox make a trade to acquire Tyler Glasnow to bolster their rotation. The White Sox ship Eloy Jimenez to the Toronto Blue Jays. Joey Gallo gets moved to the Angels for Luis Rengifo. The Diamondbacks ship SP Zac Gallen to the Brewers near the deadline. Gallen extends with the Brewers for 7 years and $134,000,000. We hold firm at the deadline and go into August at 79-36. Near the end of the month we lose RP Jackson Phipps for 8-9 weeks, which is one of the pitchers we can most afford to lose. We call up RP Michael Bienlien. On September 7th, we've officially clinched the division already - but there is still some alarming news in our division. Namely, that both wild card spots have already been clinched in the AL too - by the Kansas City Royals and the, you guessed it, Cleveland Indians. Both teams from my division. In fact, the team that was 43-44 and looked toast? They are finishing the season with a 97-65 record. An astounding turnaround. We should feel more comfortable heading into the playoffs, but I do not.
Playoffs
We're able to stay at home and watch the Wild Card, which, of course, goes as we feared it would. The Indians defeat the Royals 10-3. They're coming. That means that while the Rangers and Red Sox battle, we get to face the second best team in the AL for our first matchup. The team that sent us home last year and is the back-to-back defending champion. Division Series Here they are. The damn Indians. It's mostly the same scary core. Francisco Lindor - Jose Ramirez - Aristides Aquino - Triston Casas - the deadly middle of the order. Only now they've added Nolan Jones and Jake Bauers to the end of that, who both hit 40 homeruns. They led the league in homeruns as a team and were 2nd only to us in runs scored. How about runs against? They were 2nd only to us. This is powerhouse versus powerhouse. Game 1 - Indians def. Tigers, 3-0 Of course, we lose at home - to Shane Beiber, who we beat every time during the regular season. He shut us down here. We can't have this, not like this. Game 2 - Tigers def. Indians, 11-2 Alright, this is what we need out of the league's best offense. Riley Greene drove in three runs in the first and we never looked back - I love jumping on their starter early. We saw four bullpen arms, so let's hope that helps us as we go. Game 3 - Indians def. Tigers, 2-1 I mean.. this hurts. Rocker throws a gem and they get a run on Levi Kelly to win it. They threw a bullpen game against us and still won, due to Espino getting hurt. I cannot believe they silenced our bats with a full bullpen outing in back to back games. Now we are on the ropes and we should be the favorites. Game 4 - Tigers def. Indians, 3-0 Luke. Weaver. Offseason acquisition that I had hoped was better for us than he was in Coors. Well, he earned some of his paycheck in this one, going eight innings and only allowing 3 hits. No runs. What a performance. He helped us force a game 5, where it will all come down to Casey Mize versus Shane Beiber. Game 5 - Tigers def. Indians, 2-1 Huge sigh of relief! They scored in the first, and Riley Greene blasted a two-run shot in the bottom half of the inning to get us the lead. Thankfully, we never gave up that lead despite our offense being silenced. Mize and Beiber both went 7 innings and gave up 5 hits each. They both struck out 7. Our bullpen, de Geus and Kelly, shut it down. They didn't allow a hit. We survived. Barely. It should be easier from here on, but nothing is ever easy in the playoffs. But, for the first time under my leadership, we're heading to the League Championship Series! Willi Castro was named series MVP. League Championship Series We matchup with the Boston Red Sox who were middle of the pack in the AL, but won the AL East. They're led by Rafael Devers and Didi Gregorius on offense, with Andrew Heaney and Tyler Glasnow in the rotation. They're without Blake Snell, Tyler Mahle, Darwinzon Hernandez and Victor Arano, all pitchers. Game 1 - Tigers def. Red Sox, 5-3 Willi Castro and Riley Greene provide the run support and Manning gives us enough of a performance to hold onto our lead. The bullpen shuts it down, allowing only one hit. This is a nice win in the first game. The Red Sox starter, Tanner Houck , was injured. Game 2 - Tigers def. Red Sox, 4-1 Rocker was awesome, going six innings and giving up one run. He might be who I count on the most nowadays. It's him or Mize for sure. White and Castro added homeruns to help us out on offense. Our bullpen is once again lights out. Starting 2-0 is much nicer in this series. Game 3 - Red Sox def. Tigers, 6-2 Weaver just got left out there too long, giving up some early runs and then he gets beat up later in the game. We should've gone to the pen sooner. We also should've scored more runs, but Heaney shackled us a bit. We're okay, we'll bounce back. Game 4 - Tigers def. Red Sox, 9-5 We had our ace on the bump. They had Glasnow. There were 32 hits in this game. We had to go the pen early, after four and a third, but our bullpen is pretty fresh. In fact, they don't give up a run over the rest of the game. Boston gets five innings out of Glasnow, but they had some bumps in the pen, including when, after going into the 11th inning tied, we managed the four runs that would win us the game. Isaac Paredes had 6 hits, which sets an AL playoff extra-inning game record. Mountcastle tied the record with 5 strikeouts and Castro tied the record for doubles, with 3. We are one game away from the World Series! Game 5 - Red Sox def. Tigers, 4-0 We had 9 hits to their 6. We just couldn't string them together. Tanner Houck threw a complete game, saving their bullpen, and shutting us down. Matt Manning gave up the four that cost us the game, which we could afford to lose. We have Rocker on the mound next game and I'd like to close it out there and not go to Game 7. Game 6 - Tigers def. Red Sox, 4-3 Extra innings baby! We're going to the World Series! Rocker was great, as was Ward for the Red Sox. Our bullpen was decent, but it was Noah Syndergaard out of the pen for the Red Sox who gives up the final RBI to Willi Castro in the 10th. Yet, before that even happened - we trailed 3-0 heading into the bottom of the 9th. Castro walked and Chentouf doubled. Greene flew out and then an Evan White homerun tied the game to even give us the chance. What a game. What a series win. Willi Castro was Series MVP. World Series The San Diego Padres eliminated the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series. The Padres are great, maybe the best team in baseball. Our 108 wins and their 112 are the best offerings from each league. These are the teams that should be here. It feels right, even if I'm still surprised at our performance this year. The Padres finished 1st or 2nd in all hitting categories in the NL. They had the NL's best pitching staff. We share these accolades in the AL. It's an absolute showdown. They are led by C.J. Abrams and Fernando Tatis Jr. on offense. We are led by Willi Castro, Evan White and Yaya Chentouf. Our pitching staff is anchored by Mize, Rocker and Manning, while theirs is headlined by the even better Mackenzie Gore and Luis Patino. Gore featured a ridiculous 1.49 ERA this season. The next best mark in the league was a 2.62. Rocker's 2.87 led the AL. Gore is insane. He's scheduled for Games 3 and 7, while Patino is ready for Games 1 and 5. Our star power is more balanced, but theirs is higher. It's juggernaut versus juggernaut. It's the World Series! Game 1 - Tigers def. Padres, 5-0 What a start we have here, with Mize throwing a gem - giving up just four hits and no runs over 8 innings. Genesis Cabrera closed down the 9th for us. Patino was nearly as good, going six innings and only allowing one run on two hits - a solo homerun by Jordan Diaz in the 1st inning. We didn't know that would be enough at the time, but the offense added four more runs against the San Diego bullpen, highlighted by Chentouf's two-run dinger. We needed this win against Patino and Mize delivered. We have Manning versus Gore in game two, as both were moved up in the order due to getting enough rest, it should be a tough one for our offense. Game 2 - Padres def. Tigers, 2-0 Well, I knew it'd be tough - I was hopeful we'd get on the board, but we could only manage three hits. Gore went the distance, complete game shutout, striking out six and walking none. He's just too good. Manning only surrendered two, but that was enough. De Geus and Kelly were solid out of the pen. The extra day of rest means that Rocker is available for Game 3, which is good news for us. Game 3 - Padres def. Tigers, 7-1 Well, shit. We only managed one run, which was unearned, but the Padres got ahold of Rocker in the 6th, chasing him and then putting up three more runs on Zack Hess. We really needed this one, Rocker gave us the advantage and we just didn't have it on either side here. We've got Luke Weaver facing off with Dylan Cease next. Game 4 - Padres def. Tigers, 10-5 Weaver was decent, enough to keep us in it, but Levi Kelly got blasted for five runs. He's been good all year and in the postseason, so it hurts, but it happens. We put up five runs and couldn't get a win, the type of game we've won all year by relying on our bullpen. This one hurts - we're definitely on the ropes now and are win or go home the rest of the way. It's an uphill climb. Game 5 - Padres def. Tigers, 4-3 What can you do? Mize was decent, Patino was decent and we went into extras. We just gave up a run and then couldn't get one as an answer. We fought, taking it into the 11th, and came up short. Our best versus their best, they just came out on top. Fernando Tatis Jr. was named World Series MVP. Full Playoffs Detroit Achievements
RP Levi Kelly wins Rookie of the Month for April.
SP/RP Genesis Cabrera, SP Casey Mize, RP Levi Kelly, RP Brett de Geus, 2B Willi Castro, LF Evan White and RF Yaya Chentouf are named to the All-Star game.
SP Justin Powell, C Dale Burton and RF Ronnie Ruth are named to the All-Star Prospects game.
RP Levi Kelly wins Rookie of the Month for June.
SP Kumar Rocker wins Pitcher of the Month for June.
SP Casey Mize wins Pitcher of the Month for July.
SP Kumar Rocker led the AL in ERA, K/9 and H/9.
RF Yaya Chentouf led the AL in RBI.
2B Willi Castro led the AL in OBP.
SP Casey Mize led the AL in Wins.
RP Brett de Geus led the AL in Games and Holds.
Season Recap
We finally won the division. We were the best team in the American League. We made it out of the Division Series and all the way into the World Series. We ran into a buzzsaw. It happens. We were the 2nd best team in the entire league and we came in 2nd place to the best team in the league. I suppose you can't be too mad at that. It's frustrating for sure, but it's baseball - we'll find a way to get back.
Hitters
Starting Lineup 3B Isaac Paredes Paredes gave us 3.6 WAR, nearly matching his 4 WAR season from the year prior. Which, seems pretty good. When you factor in that he missed two months with injury and only played 92 games, it's pretty incredible. He was having an even better year and while his arbitration number will go up, I think he's probably good to stay around until he doesn't have arbitration years left. His personality traits aren't great, but he's only 26.5 and still playing solid. CF Kyle Isbel I give up on Isbel. Three seasons I've thought his ratings would make up for what I was seeing on the field. Well, now the ratings have slipped a bit, probably to a more accurate level - he just doesn't hit as well as I'd hoped, nothing like how he raked in the minors. I'll try to move him this offseason or non-tender him. My owner wants me to upgrade in center field and I want to also. 2B Willi Castro What more can I ask of Willi? He has literally gotten better every season that he's played for me. He's signed for the next five seasons and that might come back to bite me, but he's been the franchise's key piece ever since I took over and is crucial to our success. He gave us 8.4 WAR this season, right after a 7.4 WAR campaign last year. His bat was awesome this year and he played solid defense again, though I don't think he'll repeat as gold glove at second. RF Yaya Chentouf This will be a bit of a trend this season, but, Yaya improved on an already impressive year last year, bumping his WAR by 1 to 6.4 this year. His bat was almost exactly as effective and he improved in the field. He's one of my favorite finds for this team and though he's gotten off to a start at an older age, he's still on a minimum and could be around for a long time if the power holds on. DH Riley Greene Greene was a much better DH than Isbel was last year and isn't in need of replacement (like Isbel). He's also a more than capable fielder, playing 50+ games in left this year. His WAR wasn't as high as last year, but he was also in the field all of last year, so I'm not too surprised. He's young and has a cheap contract, while also playing well. No complaints here. 1B Ryan Mountcastle Remember that trend? Mountcastle had his best year yet! Nearly 5 WAR as a 1B is a pretty sweet deal. The bat was on fire this year and wasn't even that far off of his average BABIP, so it could be sustainable. He's gonna get a sizable contract bump in arbitration, but he had a career year, so I can't let him get away just yet. LF Evan White Evan White is back baby! He was helped out by a super high BABIP in the early years, which definitely came down, but damn if I don't love a 6 WAR Evan White. He was great in left and even above average in center field too. He continues to be a cheap and controlled contract, so he'll definitely be back. SS Ke'Bryan Hayes The trend! Hayes had his best year yet, finally getting some BABIP luck. Finally an above average hitter, he was also a much better fielder in his 2nd full year at shortstop. In fact, my owner wanted me to upgrade at shortstop... from Hayes. Hayes completed the goal - upgrading from himself. I'd say a 0.6 WAR to 4.1 WAR jump will do that for you. It's nice to have him back. C Christian Vazquez What can you say about Vazquez? He doesn't hit. He doesn't even field that well. But I look at my pitching staff and how I featured the least runs against, best rotation and best bullpen and I can't help but put a lot of the credit on Vazquez. He's got a cheaper team option for next year, which I'll likely be executing to bring him back. The defense hasn't fallen off and that's all he's here for. Bench/Replacements C Drew Romo He was terrible at the plate, great in the field and replaces most of what Vazquez does for the pitching staff. He'll continue to be my backup. 3B Jordan Diaz Diaz was less of a backup and more of a full-time starter - he played in about 20 more games than Paredes due to Isaac's injury. He was good in that time, a league average hitter and fielder at third. If I do decide to move on from Paredes, the drop to Diaz really isn't that bad. He's cheap and controlled for longer. RF Luis Matos Matos was a much better hitter this time around and I trusted his ratings even though he had been bad in AAA last year. He's still young, he's still cheap, but he's a solid outfielder and a good bat. I like having him around. 2B Addison Barger Barger got called up while Paredes was hurt and was serviceable. He's not the world's worst second baseman, but not someone I want out there every day. He's been tearing up AAA though, so he needs a shot somewhere. LF Sammy Siani Sammy was acquired at the beginning of my tenure and has tore it up at every level. He was great in AAA last year and I just didn't have a spot for him, but I brought him up when I had a roster space and he performed decent-ish in a tiny sample size. He needs more playing time, but I'm loaded in the outfield. He's fragile, so maybe I see if he has any value. DH Bryant Packard I got so tired of Isbel that I called up a 2nd DH. Packard was good enough that he might get the nod next year if I don't find something better. He was above average in 44 games, nearly a full WAR and if he can keep that up, he's valuable. He can't play in the field at all though.
Pitchers
Rotation SP Casey Mize Mize was one of the few players who wasn't "better" than the past season, but he was still a dang good pitcher. He gave us 5.4 WAR, led in wins and was one of the AL's best. He has insane contract demands and I don't think there is any way I can meet them, so he'll likely be gone, but should net me a pick. I hate to lose him, but I just can't bring him back. SP Kumar Rocker Rocker makes losing Mize hurt quite a bit less. He's on a minimum and in his sophomore campaign he quietly replicated his incredible rookie campaign, posting a 4.7 WAR and leading the AL in ERA, K/9 and H/9. I mean, yes? That's more than I can ask for. He's likely the team's ace next season. SP Matt Manning The Robin to Mize's Batman, Manning took a third seat this year to Rocker, but could be back in the sidekick role next year. He cranked out a 4.4 WAR season after missing much of last year to injury and while he'll command a high arbitration amount, I don't think I can lose him and Mize in the same offseason. SP Luke Weaver I expected Weaver to be better for us than he was for Colorado and I was right. The FIP came down a bunch and the luck went right with it to give him a 3.1 WAR season for us as a fourth starter. I'm happy with that. He was a rental though and won't be back next year. He might net me a pick. SP Jackson Phipps Phipps wasn't cutting it early on in the rotation, but he transitioned to the pen well. Then he got hurt, so he didn't get to finish out the season, but he gave us 1 WAR in 39 appearances. He was as good for us as he was in Oakland, so I still feel like he'll pan out and should get some more looks next season. Bullpen RP Jorge Alcala Alcala was basically just as good for me as he was for the Athletics, which is what I had hoped for. He was a bit unlucky on BABIP comparatively, jumping 30 points, but he was still a 1.4 WAR pitcher in relief. I'll take it, but I don't know if I want to pay him nearly 4M in arbitration. RP Genesis Cabrera Cabrera has had an interesting road with me. He was pulled up in 2022 and was a 33 game starter, posting a 3 WAR. Then he suddenly just couldn't cut it in the rotation and became a nearly full-time reliever. He wasn't great at that, but I gave him another shot and he performed well last season. He got off to a hot start this year and when Phipps struggled, I gave him another shot. His ERA was unlucky as a starter, but he pitched well all season as evidenced by his 81 FIP- and 4.04 FIP. It was his best season in the majors yet from that standpoint and he gave us 2.5 WAR with 24 starts and 16 relief appearances. The arbitration estimate is cheap and I probably need him to fill a slot in the rotation next year, especially as my only lefty right now. RP Kyle Dohy There is always at least one - a reliever who was solid and suddenly can't cut it anymore. This year, Dohy fits that bill. He was awful and I didn't give him much of a leash either. Then he wasn't good in AAA either. At 29, he may be on his way out. RP Zack Hess Hess was about the most unlucky guy in the league. He had a 6.04 ERA, but his FIP was a 4.00 and his FIP- was an 81. He was good. It just didn't fall right for him. He's cheap and still solid, I bet he bounces back. RP Connor Jones Jones didn't really perform like Alcala did as far as trade returns go. He certainly wasn't bad, in fact he was good - I just had hoped for more I suppose. He's a high movement pitcher who gave up a career high in homeruns. That's concerning. RP Levi Kelly Levi Kelly was pretty unlucky in a brief stint with Arizona last year, but seemed solid to me. Well, he wasn't unlucky for us and was even more dominant. A 2.67 FIP and 54 FIP- tell the tale. 2.9 WAR reinforces it. He was a stellar reliever, one of the league's best - getting an All-Star nod and was a two-time Rookie of the Month. RP Jack Little Jack wasn't that great in 22 appearances and got sent down. He didn't see the field much and is Fragile now. I don't think he's gonna be sticking around. RP Gerson Moreno Moreno was better this year than last, but, he also only saw 11 outings. That was a result of a loaded bullpen that saw him become a specialist only - a role he was good at, but wasn't needed as much. I'm not sure if that's worth keeping around or not, but he's a solid reliever nonetheless. RP Brett de Geus Brett gave us 2.2 WAR last year and I said we'd give him more opportunities - that usually goes bad for me. This time it didn't, he answered in kind and gave us 3.0 WAR in 78 appearances. He'll continue getting opportunities. RP Michael Bienlien Michael got called up late due to his AAA performance. He wasn't bad, but it's a small sample size. RP Jonathan Bowlan I should've learned last year. I'm done with Bowlan, I don't care how good he does in AAA. He's gone.
Prospect Watch
SP Justin Powell - Well, it was only R+, but he was solid finally. He's the #1 rated prospect in the MLB right now. He's Fragile. He has low work ethic. I don't know what to do with him. He looks like he should be incredible. Should be. A big if he develops into his ceiling. If he stays healthy. I don't want to flip him because he could be a superstar, but, there are so many red flags. RF Ronnie Ruth - Take a look at how Ronnie progressed this year. If he hits that hitting tool ceiling? Look the heck out. The personality information isn't great, but at least it's not work ethic or intelligence, but the hit tool looks otherworldly. He'll be in A+ for sure. BNN ranks him 11th. SP Zach Stephens - The new draftee performed in A- and will go to A right away. BNN says he's the 87th best prospect. 3B Alex Santa Cruz - An IFA signing in 2023, Cruz was in the DSL this year and played well. He'll jump stateside to a rookie league or perhaps R+, but BNN likes him inside the top 100 and the hit tool and run tool are awesome. Defense leaves a bit to be desired though. SP Doug Wade - Wade didn't pitch that well in A, but he'll go up to AA and we'll see what he has. He looks like he's got some major league pitches already and keeps the ball in the park. SP/RP Rolando Sirit - Rolando was thrown to the wolves in A+ and never stood a chance. I've remedied that issue, but he wasn't there again and instead dominated in AA. He's right on the line between starter and reliever, but he looks pretty solid right now and could feasibly be in the bullpen for the Tigers next year. SP Ryan Hagenow - Ryan had a down year in AA 2 years ago but was solid in AAA this year. Does he deserve a shot at the major league level? Perhaps. Will I need him up? Possibly. I think there is a good chance we take a chance on him for the Tigers in 2026. RF Ismael Mena - Mena was great in AAA after being good in AA too. He's progressed nicely and my scout thinks he's basically a league-average hitter and fielder while being a great baserunner. The trouble is finding a spot for him in the majors, but he might be ready to try. CF Petey Halpin - My 2nd round pick in 2020 has finally made his way to AAA and performed well. He carried a high BABIP, but, he was well above average so that should even out. Again, he's an outfielder and I have a plethora of them right now, so I don't know what to do about that or how to get him in the lineup, but I'd like to somehow. RP Mel Rodrigues - Mel has been starting, but he's really a reliever. He could be a great one. I just wish he'd stop throwing the changeup! He's almost ready right now, but he hasn't thrown above A-. I'll plug him into A+ next year and see how that goes. RP Isaiah Magwood - Magwood looks ready right now according to my scout. He was unlucky in AA, but was solid. He might find his way into the bullpen at the major league level, if not he'll try AAA. OF Mike Gode - Gode continued his good progression and will go to AA. He looks like a solid bat, but he's bad in the field, so that'll be an issue. LF/P Cole Wagner - I know that I should just convert Wagner to a full-time hitter, which he does seem better at, but he keeps pitching well at every level too, so I'll keep him going to AAA. I know he probably won't be a two-way player forever, but the dream is still alive!
Future Outlook
My payroll continues to trend upward. We're going to lose Mize and Weaver. We have some choices to make about some minor league players who look ready but may not have slots open. We went to the World Series on a budget and we still have one of the league's lowest, so we still have to pinch pennies.
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