For the fourth year in a row, we did a project where 30 people took over the roles as the 30 MLB GMs and conducted the offseason in a week. We did arbitration, made trades and signed free agents. At the end of the week, we were supposed to submit 25-man rosters and budgets and that information will be posted here.
This project cannot ever hope to replicate results in the real world. If this is the only way you can think of this being a success – please stop reading immediately. The 30 of us put a lot of time and effort into this and we know that it’s not in any way, shape or form indicative of how things will play out in real life. Don’t play the Captain Obvious role and point out things that wouldn’t happen in MLB. Any pointless posts such as this will be deleted with extreme prejudice.
However, please look at the individual teams and see what their owners thought were the proper ways to go. Did the Mets owner address the injury issues? Did the Reds owner get more starting pitching? Did the Marlins owner put up a representative team while adhering to ownership’s crazy payroll directive? There are storylines for each club and the thought process behind the moves is just as important, if not more important, than the moves themselves.
But feel free to criticize the moves, too. Did anyone pull an AJ Preller and try to trade a team into contention and make horrible deals? Did a squad a pitcher away from contention focus only on hitting? Did an owner trade a top prospect for pennies on the dollar? These things and others are certainly up for praise, criticism and debate.
This post will stay at the top of the page for about a week and I will update as the owners send me their information. Click on the hyperlinked owner names to view their recap. Thanks for reading and we look forward to your thoughts on our project.
Atlanta Braves-
Miami Marlins – David Groveman
New York Mets – Brian Joura
Philadelphia Phillies – Dan Spiro
Washington Nationals –
Chicago Cubs –
Cincinnati Reds – John Fox
Milwaukee Brewers – Matt Netter
Pittsburgh Pirates –
St. Louis Cardinals –
Arizona Diamondbacks –
Colorado Rockies – Paul Festa
Los Angeles Dodgers – Bob Lowe
San Diego Padres – Scott Ferguson
San Francisco Giants – Steve Hoeffler
Baltimore Orioles – Greg Jarvis
Boston Red Sox – Joe Barbieri
New York Yankees – Mark Healey
Tampa Bay Rays –
Toronto Blue Jays – Joe Vasile
Chicago White Sox – Todd Gallagher
Cleveland Indians – Brian Kobil
Detroit Tigers – John Coppinger
Kansas City Royals –
Minnesota Twins – Peter Kreutzer
Houston Astros – Brian Mullen
Los Angeles Angels –
Oakland Athletics – Matt Bruce
Seattle Mariners –
Texas Rangers –
Finally, I’d like to thank the 29 other people who participated in this. I hope you had fun and that you will consider doing it again next year.
As always, this was a lot of fun.
Kudos to Brian for putting up with my caveat laden bids for prospects on the final day. I was out in the woods with no reception from Friday until Sunday and he was exceedingly kind to have dealt with a long list of “If this, then that”s
I like these this year and last, but I wish there was a standard format. I like how Groveman lays out everything. It would everything easier to compare. Reds explanation was lacking.
Thanks for reading, both this year and last!
David’s explanation was very good and he also made more moves than anyone else, so it’s good that it worked out that way. This is the fourth year he’s done this, so he knows what to do in writing it up.
Not everyone is a writer, so I don’t feel like I can make writing a summary be part of the process.
If it helps,
Next year I can provide a templates for people to use for their budget management and recap articles.
The Marlins have 13 players on their 25 man roster who weren’t there last season and 5 new prospects. They also let a player hit free agency to save 2.5 Mil. Brian is correct. I did a lot of wheeling and dealing.