Power Pros Forum

Coolio, congrats Brewers and congrats Reapers on a post season finish!

Award Announcements:

American League:

MVP: Posada (Yankees)
Pitcher of the Year: J.Weaver (Angels)
Hank Aaron Award: A.Rodriguez (Yankees)
Relief Pitcher of the Year: R.Betancourt (Indians)
Rookie of the Year: Vilchez (Penguins Catcher)

Fielders of the Year:
LF: S.Stewart (Blue Jays) CF: J.D.Drew (Red Sox) RF: Dye (White Sox)
3B: Lamb (Twins) SS: M.Izturis (Angels) 2B: Grudzielanek (Royals) 1B: Konerko (White Sox)
C: I Rodriguez (Tigers)
P: Batista (Mariners)

Hitters of the Year:
LF: B.Abreu (Yankees) CF: Sizemore (Indians) RF: L.Gonzalez (Royals)
3B: A.Rodriguez (Yankees) SS: D.Jeter (Yankees) 2B: Ellis (Athletics) 1B: Konerko (White Sox)
C: Posada (Yankees)
DH: Sheffield (Tigers)

National League:

MVP: Pujols (Cardinals)
Pitcher of the Year: J.Santana (Mets)
Hank Aaron Award: Pujols (Cardinals)
Relief Pitcher of the Year: Correia (Giants)
Rookie of the Year: Fukudome (Cubs)

Fielders of the Year:
LF: Winn (Giants) CF: Nady (Pirates) RF: M.Diaz (Braves)
3B: Glaus (Cardinals) SS: M.Young (Pirates) 2B: O.Hudson (Diamondbacks) 1B: Delgado (Mets)
C: Kendall (Brewers)
P: Oswalt (Astros)

Hitters of the Year:
LF: C.Young (Diamondbacks) CF: Beltran (Mets) RF: Victorino (Phillies)
3B: D.Wright (Mets) SS: H.Ramirez (Marlins) 2B: Utley (Phillies) 1B: Pujols (Cardinals)
C: Schneider (Mets)
P: Mercker (Reds)

Overall the Reapers finished with no awards.

"I can't really be disappointed about the team finishing with no awards. I think what that really means is that we have a balanced team, we were able to win our division so you can't say our team is bad, just that our team doesn't have any individual players that have stood out as stars."

Too bad no awards for the Reapers

The Reapers have successfully resigned all of their players during contract negotiation.

Notable contracts:
Mitre signed for 550 for 2 years.
Duke signed for 2500 for 2 years. "Although his record really was not at all good with us last year, I have no trouble believing quite a bit of it may be attributed to bad run support. I still believe he can help us down the line."
Rottino signed for 900 for 1 year.
Fireballer signed for 1500 for 2 years.
Siegmund signed for 3500 for 1 year. "Considering the year he had, this is more than we would have liked to spend. It's hard to believe he was actually asking for over 11000 at the start of negotiations, I had to find the records and show him his own stats, saying if he really expected to get that much after hitting .261 in his rookie year, he should start looking for another job because he wasn't welcome here anymore. Eventually he agreed to a significantly lower salary, but still the highest on the team by a fair amount."
Grisales, the Reapers second round draft pick, signed for 420 for 2 years.
Orie, the Reapers first round draft pick, signed for 450 for 1 year.

"I think we will need to sign some new players for next year. I'm thinking our pitching is probably good, but a minor improvement somewhere couldn't hurt, if it's cheap enough. I think some fielding upgrades, particularly in the middle infield, would definitely help the team. But the most obvious improvement we need is for hitting. I don't want to spend too much though, not until I can be sure the team will consistently compete and earn me enough to be able to afford their salaries. Ideally, I would like to find a young player, confident enough to believe he can lead a team to a World Series Championship, if he's willing to work for a fairly low salary as well, I will definitely give them the chance to prove it."

Free Agents Available:

P:
Schilling
Farnsworth
Trachsel
Bondermon
Rogers
L.Hernandez
Rincon
Nathan
Morris
Howry
Garland
Ponson
J.Wright
T.Gordon
Smoltz
Hendrickson
Dempster
Eyre
Gagne
Lohse
Springer
Chacon
D.Marte
R.Johnson
Peavy
Prior
Rusch
Penny

C:
Casanova
H.Blanco

1B:
Overbay
G.Johnson
Delgado
Mientkiewicz
M.Sweeney
Aurilia

2B:
J.Carroll
Uribe
Grudzielanek
Loretta
O.Hudson
Durham

3B:
Blalock
Feliz
Punto
Helms

SS:
Cora
Renteria
C.Izturis
C.Gomez
Vizquel

LF:
Hairston Jr.
M.Ramirez
S.Stewart
L.Gonzalez
Ibanez
E.Brown
Burrell
Byrnes
Podsednik

CF:
Payton
Hunter
G.Anderson
M.Cameron
Erstad

RF:
B.Abreu
Baldelli

"Overall, there aren't as many good options as I'd like, but I feel like it's necessary to get someone, even if it's just for one year, for a better chance at winning this year."


At this point I will pause to allow feedback, such as whether anyone has any recommendations on who to sign.

If anyone wants to personally discuss these with me I'll be on the chat as much as possible.

What type of pitching are you looking for bullpen or starters?
For middle infield help I always like to get Orlando Hudson.

Randy Johnson has a good ERA in sims for me, about 3.00. I don't remember if he was cheap or not.

Jake Peavy's always a good pitcher to get in free agency...not sure if he's cheap, though.

O.Hudson requests a 4560 salary for one year, I've checked and my second baseman is actually the guy with the best average on the team, so if I got a second baseman I would likely attempt to convert one of them to shortstop.

The 45 year old R.Johnson requests 7350 contract for 5 years, after posting a 4.58 ERA last year.

Peavy is probably the one I would be most interested in getting as far as pitchers go, he's fairly young, with major league experience, he's good, at least as far as his abilities go. He also only requests a 4680 salary for 5 years. My only concern is that he had a 4.93 ERA last year. But I suppose if he did do good last year he wouldn't be that cheap.

Yeah. Don't sign Johnson for five years I would sign him for 1 year 3 at the most. Go for Peavy. He has good breaking balls and good velocity.

Don't re'sign johnson, His skills drop big time in year 2

I really don't get free agency. What's the point of even including suggested prices and contracts? They apparently mean nothing, I thought some of the suggested prices were high, but they don't even consider signing for suggested prices.

For the sake of experiment, I have offered someone over three times their asking price at the contract they requested, only to have them not even consider it and immediately sign somewhere else.

Edit: I'm not even sure what the point of this free agency period is, apparently nobody is willing to sign to a team that decisively won their division, not even if they're asking for 400 and you offer them 30000, I've literally just tried that and they didn't sign.

Perhaps being an expansion team hurts your odds.

Yeah, on one of my seasons, I used the Braves, and was able to sign F/As really easily

If it hurt the odds that would be fine. But it absolutely doesn't allow you to sign anyone.

If the team wasn't one of the top 15 teams in the MLB it would make sense, but we finished at the top of our division.

If you offer someone twice their requested salary they should sign no matter who you are. Not to mention offering 75 times their requested salary, which I have tried and they wouldn't consider it.