Our MLB GM simulation is underway, back for a third season. All teams have a budget and we are tackling arbitration, trades and free agency. We have 30 people spread throughout the country who are doing this because they love the game and they hope to learn something along the way.
You’ll see a lot of familiar faces involved in this project. All current Mets360 writers were invited to participate and David Groveman, Matt Netter and yours truly are the ones who accepted the challenge. Former writers Joe Barbieri, Scott Ferguson, Sean Flattery, Stephen Guilbert, Jim Keller, Dan Kolton, Julian McCarthy and Joe Vasile are also participating. There are people with former ties to minor league baseball, collegiate sports information directors and people who run fantasy sites.
All 30 of the GMs will be offered the chance to write about their experiences and my hope is that the vast majority of them will. These will start hitting the site next week, with David’s piece on running the Atlanta Braves. At the very least, the 360 guys will spell out their week. My team is the Angels. They have perhaps the worst farm system in MLB but they make up for it by spending $24 million on Josh Hamilton to be elsewhere and $26 million to Albert Pujols to be a shell of his former self.
Stay tuned to see how David, Matt and I did, along with the other 27 owners. Earlier today I pulled off a quasi three-team trade with the Rays and Blue Jays. You won’t recognize the Mets after Matt’s had them for a week (don’t ask for details – just know that he’s been very busy) and watch David attempt to craft a pitching staff for the hated Braves.
Two Mondays from now, David will write a wrap-up piece for the project. If memory serves, last year he graded all 30 teams, so we should expect something similar this time around, too.
I can’t make miracles happen