A Home For The Aged: A BBM Marlins Expansion Dynasty

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JUNE 14TH: Marlins (31-34) Vs Phillies (26-39)
Another really bad loss. We were down, scuffled back to tie it in the 8th but then our bullpen imploded and let them go ahead and that was that. Really starting to worry about team moral.
Final Score: Phillies 7 Marlins 5



JUNE 15TH: Marlins (31-35) Vs Phillies (27-39)
Two important things happened today. First off we score 4 1st inning runs off of Ben Rivera and cruised to a victory. 2nd off Bryn Smith pitched 8 scoreless innings and really gave our bullpen a rest. I hope this was the tonic we needed to get back on track. Time to go out tommorow and take the series and stear closer to righting this ship.
Final Score: Marlins 7 Phillies 0



JUNE 16TH: INJURY NEWS
Jim Eisenreich is healthy now, he'll be back in the starting lineup today. Bill Wegman has some elbow imflamation and will miss his next start. Chuck Smith has been recalled to make a spot start in a few days.



JUNE 16TH: Marlins (32-35) Vs Phillies (27-40)
Tooth and nail game that we eeked ahead of in the late innings and then Gossage, who has been shaky lately, shut em down in the 9th for a win, 2 in a row and a series victory. Also, Saunders rebounded beautifully from his last ATROCIOUS outing. Nice rebound.
Final Score: Marlins 4 Phillies 3


JUNE 17TH: OFF DAY

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JUNE 18TH: Marlins (33-35) Vs Expos (36-32)
Ughhh to the max!!! We outhit them but the difference was power. Alou, Walker & Berry all homered off of Heaton and even though we fought back tooth and nail and had the bases juiced with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th we came up just short. Those Expose are real slimeburgers!!
Final Score: Expos 6 Marlins 5



JUNE 19TH: Marlins (33-36) Vs Expos (37-32)
Real solid win as we got to Chris Nabholz early and then the bullpen late and put together a nice all around effort with Tanana pitching strong for a victory.
Final Score: Marlins 8 Expos 5



JUNE 20TH: Marlins (34-36) Vs Expos (37-33)
Very nice victory as Chuck Smith impressivly matched Dennis Martinez pitch for pitch thru 7 innings and then we once again got to their bullpen late knocking around Mel Rojas in the 8th for a win and our 2nd straight series victory.
Final Score: Marlins 5 Expos 1



JUNE 20TH: ROSTER MOVE
I was gonna send Chuck Smith back down to the minors after the game but I realized i'm sort of circumventing things by just demoting Wegman when he was injured and then bringing him back up so I've decided to DL Wegman and make him miss the full 15 days. Chuck Smith will take his spot till his 15 days are up. I'm doing the same thing Shumpert as the game doesn't enforce any sort of DL time limite, ie: you can DL a guy and then activate him the next day, so i've got enforce that area of the game myself.

[Suicane]

JUNE 21ST: Marlins (35-36) At Cardinals (31-41)
What a tough loss but what a really good game. Bryn Smith threw 9 innings of 1 run ball and Rheal Cormier threw 10 innings of 1 one run ball. They got to our bullpen in the 11th and snatched a win but it was a real nice game.
Final Score: Cardinals 2 Marlins 1 (11 Innings)



JUNE 22ND: Marlins (35-37) At Cardinals (32-41)
Dissapointing loss as Saunders, then Heredia got touched up a bit, our offense was pretty silent. Just a by the numbers victory for the Cardinals.
Final Score: Cardinals 7 Marlins 2



JUNE 23RD: Marlins (35-38) At Cardinals (33-41)
Bleh. Tewksbury shut us down. Heaton went the distance but gave up 5 runs which was more than they needed. Tough sweep to swallow.
Final Score: Cardinals 5 Marlins 2



JUNE 24TH: OFF DAY



JUNE 24TH: ROSTER NEWS
Terry Shumpert is eligable to come off the DL today and we activate him and send 2B Dave Berg down to A.

[Suicane]

JUNE 25TH: Marlins (35-39) At Mets (52-23)
Damnit. Saberhagen just shut us down. Another day, another empty offensive output. We're now 5 games under .500 and need to start gettin some wins.
Final Score: Mets 4 Marlins 1



JUNE 25TH: INURY NEWS
Terry Shumpert strained his forearm and will miss a couple of days. He's a little brittle it seems, might not have to start him as much the rest of the season as it appears he may not be built for everyday play.


JUNE 26TH: Marlins (35-40) At Mets (53-23)
Another day, another drubbing. Chuck Smith took his first real beating and Terry Mullholand shut us the eff down.
Final Score: Mets 8 Marlins 2



JUNE 27TH: Marlins (35-41) At Mets (54-23)
Absolutely huge win as we trailed all the way but then broke thru for 2 in the 8th and five in the 9th, batting around to salvage a win in the series and more importantly show some signs of life.
Final Score: Marlins 9 Mets 5

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JUNE 28TH: Marlins (36-41) Vs Phillies (30-48)
Phew. Saunders pitched well but only got thru 5 innings. Our bullpen then did a great job, concluding with Gossage putting em down in the 9th as we escaped with a low scoring, one run victory for two in a row.
Final Score: Marlins 3 Phillies 2



JUNE 28TH: INJURY NEWS
Jim Eisenreich broke his index finger in todays game and will need to go on the 15 day DL.

We recall 3B Jason Huford from AAA. Carreon will get a majority of his at bats from the outfield now and Larkin & Hollins will each see time at 1B.


JUNE 29TH: Marlins (37-41) Vs Phillies (30-49)
Neither Heaton nor our bullpen were very good today as we got knocked around pretty good. Sucks because we got to Curt Schilling and wasted 15 hits and homers from Carreon & Gaetti. Bleh.
Final Score: Phillies 10 Marlins 6




JUNE 30TH: Marlins (37-42) Vs Phillies (31-49)
Excellent way to end the month. Friggin Jose Deleon was shutting us down all game long but we finaly broke thru in the 7th when Terry Shumpert hit a bases loaded, 3 run double to put us ahead. Goose Gossage threw 2 inning of 1 run ball to close out the game and give us a very sweet come from behind victory.
Final Score: Marlins 6 Phillies 4

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JULY 1ST: Marlins (38-42) At Expos (42-38)
Well, Ken Hill shut us down once again. Chuck Smith went 6 innings but didn't pitch very well as they just sort of smothered us en route to a win.
Final Score: Expos 6 Marlins 2



JULY 2ND: Marlins (38-43) At Expos (43-38)
Once again we can mount very little offense. This time it's Jeff Fasero shutting us down. Bryn Smith went the distance and pitched well but it's hard to win when you only score 1 run.
Final Score: Expos 3 Marlins 1



JULY 3RD: Marlins (38-44) At Expos (44-38)
Very nice win as we scraped together enough runs and our bullpen, culiminating in a 1-2-3 ninth from Gossage, came thru for us.
Final Score: Marlins 5 Expos 4



JULY 4TH: Marlins (39-44) At Expos (44-39)
Just a superb all around performance. McGee & Shumpert at the top of the order scored 5 times total and Neal Heaton had a real strong game as we rebounded nicely to get of town with a split.
Final Score: Marlins 6 Expos 1

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JULY 5TH: Marlins (40-44) At Pirates (35-49)
Woohooo! Frank Tanana throws a complete game, 1 run affair and we win a tight ball game against Randy Tomlin.
Final Score: Marlins 2 Pirates 1



JULY 5TH: INURY NEWS
Mark Carreon a bruised kidney sliding in todays game. It's not as serious as it sounds but he will miss these last 2 games before the All-Star break. Our bench will be kinda thin for the final 2 games here.



JULY 6TH: Marlins (41-44) At Pirates (35-50)
Very solid win as we got to Tim Wakefield late and plated 2 runs in the 9th to go ahead in a hard fought game. Gossage & Cook combined to close out the ninth and we pulled off our fourth straight win.
Final Score: Marlins 4 Pirates 2



JULY 7TH: Marlins (42-44) At Pirates (35-51)
A real tough loss as we let up 2 runs in the bottom of the 10th. Worse is that Candaleria inured a rib trying to make a play and will likely miss some time, not sure if we're gonna DL him though.
Final Score: Pirates 5 Marlins 4

[Suicane]

Seems strange that an expansion team is so competitive.

I downloaded a BBM demo a few years ago liked the interface, but ended up going with OOTP. Never really got into it. Is the AI as bad as it seems to be in this dynasty?

Been thinking about this for a few hours.

The AI in mogul is definately easy on the first 2 levels with a big market team. No question.

I'm playing right now on the hardest level with perhaps the shittiest market team ever so we'll see how it goes.

I think my particular succes so far in the first half of the season has alot to do with the level of talent in the expansion draft. I was able to field a decent team for sure but managing every game also puts me in a better position because i know how to use the bench and my bullpen alot better than I think the AI would if i just let it sim out my games.

I've played OOTP in the past and to me it was just too much of too little. Alot of stuff to do, none of it very well mapped out.

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87 GAME ALL-STAR BREAK STATUS REPORT

1993 Batting         G    AVG    AB    H  2B  3B  HR   BB    K   SB  CS    R  RBI   SLG   OBP
Gaetti, Gary         84  .280   300   84  18   0   7   25   53    0   4   39   33  .410  .343
McGee, Willie        85  .265   317   84  18   5   2   27   50   36   8   52   30  .372  .323
Guillen, Ozzie       78  .276   294   81  14   4   0   13   19   11   6   35   28  .350  .303
Carreon, Mark        78  .284   264   75  15   0   7   19   31    0   3   32   40  .420  .338
Eisenreich, Jim      66  .300   223   67  14   1   2   20   16    8   2   27   37  .399  .352
Goodwin, Tom         75  .263   251   66   9   4   2   21   34   31  16   48   34  .355  .322
Larkin, Gene         72  .262   210   55   8   2   3   11   20    1   2   20   18  .362  .308
Lemke, Mark          65  .239   205   49  12   2   2   23   15    0   1   25   28  .346  .313
Hollins, Dave        60  .278   162   45  12   0   4   19   43    2   3   25   29  .426  .362
LaValliere, Mike     61  .247   182   45   3   0   1   15   10    0   0   19   21  .280  .307
Shumpert, Terry      42  .260   154   40   6   0   4   10   29   14   3   18   22  .377  .301
Petralli, Geno       34  .253    79   20   2   0   0    9   10    0   0   10    7  .278  .322
Santovenia, Nelson   22  .314    51   16   0   0   0    4    6    0   0    3    2  .314  .364
Gwynn, Chris         26  .200    50   10   1   1   0    0    4    0   0    4    4  .260  .200
Heaton, Neal         16  .189    37    7   1   0   0    1   16    0   0    1    3  .216  .211
Wegman, Bill         13  .250    28    7   1   0   0    1    8    0   0    1    1  .286  .276
Smith, Bryn          18  .150    40    6   0   0   0    2   11    0   0    2    3  .150  .190
Berg, Dave           10  .185    27    5   0   0   1    4    5    0   0    1    2  .296  .281
Bushby, Pat          10  .333    12    4   0   0   0    1    1    0   0    3    1  .333  .385
Tanana, Frank        17  .121    33    4   1   0   0    2    7    0   0    2    3  .152  .167
Saunders, Tony       17  .174    23    4   0   0   0    3    9    0   0    1    2  .174  .269
Hufford, Jason        6  .273    11    3   1   0   0    2    1    0   0    2    3  .364  .385
Smith, Chuck          6  .100    10    1   0   0   0    2    4    0   0    1    0  .100  .250
Candelaria, John     40  .000     1    0   0   0   0    0    0    0   0    0    0  .000  .000
Mason, Roger         36  .000     1    0   0   0   0    0    0    0   0    0    0  .000  .000
Cook, Dennis         34  .000     2    0   0   0   0    0    2    0   0    0    0  .000  .000
Heredia, Gil         24  .000     2    0   0   0   0    0    0    0   0    0    0  .000  .000


1993 Pitching       IP    ERA    G  GS   W   L  SV    K   BB   R/9
Smith, Bryn        130.1  3.45   18  18   8   5   0   60   26 10.57
Tanana, Frank      116.2  3.86   17  17   7   8   0   72   26 10.80
Heaton, Neal       102.0  4.85   16  15   4   6   0   36   37 13.15
Saunders, Tony      99.0  4.91   17  17   7   7   0   90   49 13.64
Wegman, Bill        87.0  4.76   13  13   4   4   0   48   19 12.10
Smith, Chuck        36.0  5.00    6   6   2   2   0   27   19 14.25
Mason, Roger        33.2  2.41   36   0   1   2   2   25   13 11.50
Bedrosian, Steve    32.2  2.20   38   0   5   1   1   23   16  9.09
Heredia, Gil        31.1  3.45   24   0   1   2   0   22    5 12.06
Gossage, Rich       31.0  2.32   35   0   1   2  15   25   14 11.90
Candelaria, John    30.0  3.00   40   0   1   3   0   18    9 11.70
Cook, Dennis        26.2  2.70   34   0   1   2   2   18   10  8.78
Landrum, Bill        9.0  3.00   10   0   0   0   0    3    5 12.00

[Suicane]

87 GAME ALL-STAR BREAK LEAGUE STATUS REPORT






TRADES
In a bit of a shocker, the first place Mets did a little shakeup on their team. First they aquired George Bell from the Rockies for mid range prospect Steve Bieser on June 18th, and then later that day announced a trade that sent longtime favorite and Closer John Franco along with prospects Jay Payton & Eric Hillman to California in exchange for OF Stan Javier and 3 decent pitching prospects Mike Bovee, Mike James & Ryan Hancock. Jeff Innis became the new Mets closer.

[Suicane]

MARLINS MID SEASON FRONT OFFICE MEETING
I've gotten my entire front office staff together for these meetings, the purpose of which is to go over our finances, contact agents of players with expiring contracts, gameplan and map out our direction for the future and get to work on making some deals in the next 20 days before the trade deadline.


FINANCES

Farm System: 	$4,000,000	11th
Scouting:	$4,000,000	13th
Medical:	$2,800,000	8th
Salaries:	$13,273,308	26th
Payroll Budget:	$8,900,000
Profit:		-$1,100,000
Cash:		$1,900,000

As you can see, we are bleeding money right now. At this rate we'll have under a million dollars left at the end of the season. I refuse to cut our farm and medical budget, in fact i'd like to increase it. The problem is that right now we have to cut some salary, not just for this season, but for the future, that has made it very hard to listen to agents when we've inquired about extending some contracts. I plan to leave these meetings hopefully having made a move or two that will help stop the financial bleeding we're doing.

[Suicane]

EXPIRING CONTRACTS
We will be spending all break negotiating with players and their agents whos contracts expire at the end of the season or are due for arbitration. Whoever we don't feel is on board is gonna have to be seriously looked at for trading off.

Catcher, Nelson Santovenia: He wants just a $17K raise to resign thru next year. He's no great shakes but in lieu of us having to think hard about moving LaValiere it would be nice to have a 2nd Catcher locked up. We counter with a 3rd year option for us but he wants an extra $10 grand for that. We decide to do it and sign him to a 2 Year deal at $150K a year with a 3rd year team option.

1st Basemen, Gene Larkin: Larkin is currently making $400K and wants a 2 year extension at $500K. Gene has made it clear however that he really doesn't like it in Florida and would like to play elsewhere so we both agree to call off negotiations and we will do our best to try and move him before the trade deadline.

2nd Basemen, Mark Lemke: Mark is an excellent little player who does everything right but he's asking for an almost $500K raise and I just can't do that. I let him know i'd love to have him back next year if he brings his price down a little.

3rd Basemen, Dave Hollins: Daves agent let us know that he's not really happy here, he sorely misses playing in Philly. He's willing to extend his contract for close to a $400K raise. We're not really interested in that right now although we may revisit him and try and convince him to stay cause I really like this kid.

Left Fielder, Mark Carreon: This is one of the hardest decisions we have to make. He wants almost a million dollar raise, something we can't really afford at all right now. He's also concerned about playing for a contender, something we obviously arn't. We may have to move him although I really don't want to.

Right Fielder, Chris Gwynn: This one is easy, Chris agrees to a 1 year extension at the same $140K we're paying him right now. He's not the worlds best ballplayer but I sign him and tell him he'll every chance to make the opening day roster next year.

Right Fielder, Willie McGee: Another very tough decision as Willie will basically extend for a year with a club option for a 3rd year at a minimal $40K increase. The problem is that he's making $1.2 Million dollars and may not be starter material next year. Maybe i'm thinking with my heart instead of my head but I go ahead and give him the deal.

Right Fielder, Jim Eisenreich: Man, maybe the most solid player we have but he wants a $400K raise and he doesn't really like playing in Florida. I don't wanna lose this dude but I really don't see any way I can keep him.

Relief Pitcher, Goose Gossage: Goose wants a giant raise, but at 42 years old theres no way I can do it. He's also made it clear he doesn't really like Florida all that much.

Relief Pitcher, Roger Mason: Heh, again another guy who wants a big raise and doesn't like the sunny Florida skies. His agent clearly doesn't wanna get a deal done, eff him.

Relief Pitcher, Dennis Cook: Now, he wants a $320K raise, which my first reaction is to balk at. But the truth is that our bullpen next year is gonna be totaly retooled and the chance to keep a solid lefty is a little tough to pass on so we meet his asking price and sign him to a 1 year extension worth $760K.

Relief Pitcher, Bill Landrum: Bill is not happy being in the minors but we inform him that with our bullpen clearly going to be overhauled he'll have a might fine shot at being back on the big team in the near future. We offer a 1 year extension to $300K which is a raise of about $180K and he accepts.

Relief Pitcher, John Candaleria: A tough spot as the Candy Man would like to resign, but he's looking for a $300K raise and with Whisenant on track to make the big club next year he and Cook would be our two lefties. We agree to leave the table for now but leave negotiations open during the rest of the year

[Suicane]

TRADES

TRADE: We work into the night on a deal with Milwaukee and when it's done we agree to give up SP Bill Wegman, 3B Dave Hollins and SS prospect Alex Gonzalez in exchange for 23 year old Catching prospect Dave Nilson who is rated 78/91 and they also send us $500K in cash. I'm very excited about this deal as it gives us a Catcher for the future and helps clear some salary. SP Chuck Smith will assume Wegmans spot in the rotation and 3B Jason Hufford will be a regular on our bench. We cleary lose some pop and lineup flexability here but the hope is that if he spends the rest of the year in AAA, Nilson will be ready to handle most of the Catching duties next season.

TRADE: We weren't really looking to make this deal but the Mets called us up and dangled SP prospect Cory Lidle. We spent hours going back and forth and finaly agreed to send C Mike LaValiere and middling pitching prospects Gabe Gonzalez and Tommy Phelps to the Mets in exchange for LaValiere and $700K in cash. We will REALLY miss Mikes defensebut with the Nilson deal it was clear we weren't going to keep Mike after next season and this clears more salary from our books without I think hurting us too much. It also adds another very solid pitching prospect to our minors. Lidle will report to A ball.

TRADE: Knowing that we're gonna need some outfield depth next season to replace what we expect will be the departing Carreon & Eisnreich, we enquire about Expos OF John Vander Wall. We dangle Roger Mason out there and they are very interested but also want minor league 2B prospect Dave Berg in return. It hurts us to give away a prospect but they agree to throw in $400K in cash and we cement the deal. This gives us another outfielder signed on the cheap thru next season.


FINAL ASSESMENT
I think we did a good job of moving salary but not really hurting our team for this season as well as improving it and clearing the way for future seasons and signings. Clearly there are still guys who could be moved, Larkin, Carreon, some more of our relievers or starters but we will have to wait and see what happens over the next 18 days or so, right now i'm pretty happy with what we've accomplished.

[Suicane]

NEW FINANCES

Farm System: 	$4,500,000	7th
Scouting:	$4,500,000	8th
Medical:	$3,000,000	7th
Salaries:	$9,880,704	26th
Payroll Budget:	$7,700,000
Profit:		-$1,100,000
Cash:		$3,500,000

We've decreased salary quite a bit but we also upped our farm, scouting and medical expenses so I still expect to lose probably close to another million dollars in the 2nd half of the season but that'll be alright. There's also the strong possibility that more salary could be dumped so i'm not too worried.

[Suicane]

PROJECTED FUTURE ROSTERS
This is going off of currently signed contracts and arbitration dates. It's just to give us an idea of what our future looks like and where our money is going.


1994

RIGHT HANDED LINEUP				LEFT HANDED LINEUP				
C-  Dave Nilson 	$123K			C-  Dave Nilson 	$123K			
1B- 						1B-  						
2B- Terry Shumpert				2B- Terry Shumpert						
SS- Ozzie Guillen  	$430K			SS- Ozzie Guillen  	$430K
3B- Garry Gaetti   	$900K			3B- Garry Gaetti   	$900K
LF- Tom Goodwin		$123K			LF- John Vander Wall	$123K						
CF- Willie McGee	$1.2M			CF- Willie McGee	$1.2M 			
RF- 						RF- 						
								
BENCH						PITCHING STAFF		
C-  Geno Petrali	$380K			SP- Frank Tanana	$980K				
3B- Kevin Young		$15K			SP- Bryn Smith		$680K
C-  Nelson Santovenia	$150K			SP- Neal Heaton		$301K
OF- Chris Gwynn		$140K			SP- Chuck Smith		$123K
						SP- Tony Saunders	$123K							
						CL- Steve Bedrosian	$162K
						SE- Bill Landrum	$300K
						SR- Matt Whisenant	$5K
						SR- Josias Manzanillo	$123K
						MR- Dennis Cook		$760K
						LR- Gil Heredia		$123K

1995

RIGHT HANDED LINEUP				LEFT HANDED LINEUP				
C-  Dave Nilson 	$123K			C-  Dave Nilson 	$123K			
1B- 						1B-  						
2B- 						2B- 						
SS- Wil Cordero		$113K			SS- Wil Cordero		$113K
3B- 						3B- 
LF- Magglio Ordonez	$5K			LF- Magglio Ordonez	$5K					
CF- Carl Everet		$5K			CF- Carl Everet 	$5K		
RF- Shawn Green		$5K			RF- Shawn Green		$5K				
								
BENCH						PITCHING STAFF		
C-  Geno Petrali	$380K			SP- Tony Saunders	$123K					
SS- Ozzie Guillen  	$430K			SP- Chuck Smith		$123K
3B- Kevin Young		$15K			SP- 
CF- Willie McGee	$1.2M			SP-
						SP-							
						CL-
						SE-
						SR- Matt Whisenant	$5K
						SR- Josias Manzanillo	$123K
						MR-
						LR-

It's pretty clear to see that 1995, if everything goes right, is gonna be the first year we really hope to contend. We should have the fantastic four, Ordonez, Green, Everet & Cordero all ready to play everyday and we'll have a super low salary base that should allow us to go out and maybe get some pitching. So who knows. The future is an untamed lady.