[JetsIn06]

The 1949 Portland Rosebuds

April: 8-17
May: 15-14

That's likely our first winning month, ever.

We're 23-31 heading into June. We're 8th in runs scored in our sub-league, and 9th in runs allowed. While I didn't think our offense would be stellar, I did think our pitching would be better. The defense has definitely taken a step back as we tried to improve on offense, but my goal of improving our strikeout potential has been working, as we're ranked 4th in that category.

SP Seth White is struggling again. Despite a 3.94 SIERA, his ERA is 6.33 after 11 starts. The K's are up a bit at 26.5%, but he's walking 15.2% of hitters which needs to improve.

SP Joe Casten is doing okay, with a 4.43 ERA and a 3.58 SIERA.

We could certainly use some help in the bullpen, as well.

New OF Steve Gonzalez, who we added in a trade, is walking as much as he's striking out, but isn't hitting enough to get his wRC+ to league average and is at 88.

The big surprise so far is CF Adam Broussard, who we called up in May after he slugged .700 in AAA. He hasn't disappointed, hitting 7 homers in 121 PA, good for a 149 wRC+ so far.

In the draft, as I mentioned, we dropped from #2 to #6. SP seems relatively deep with college arms, while offense is headlined by 1B Pat Kite, a JuCo Freshman from Hampton, VA with an elite power/eye combination. SS John Faiella looks interesting to me, a California native with an elite contact skill, speed, and defense that should keep him on the left side of the infield, but without a ton of power I'm not sure about the overall profile if he has to move to 3B. SS Brad Walter is similar, with a little more pop but is 99% destined to end up at 2B and has no speed.

1B Pat Kite, as expected, goes #1 overall to San Francisco, and is followed by two college bats in the corner OF. SP Phill Emmer, a college southpaw with elite stuff/low control goes next, followed by another college arm, SP Jesse Chandler, who's about as opposite as it gets. Low stuff, high command, right-handed.

And that brings things to us. SS/3B Faiella and SS/2B Brad Walter are still on the board. Both are happy to sign out of high school, while two other solid OF bats are listed as "impossible" to sign, though I do have the money to persuade them; but I'd certainly want to wait and see if I could grab them in a later round.

There's a couple interesting pitchers, who I'll name here only so I can embarrass myself later when they become Pitcher of the Year Award winners; SP Alberto Bugarin, a college arm with a low work ethic that just screams bust to me, and SP Travis Miller, a side-arming high stuff guy that feels somewhat destined to be a reliever due to control/split issues.

So I end up back at those infielders, and end up taking SS John Faiella. He at least has a shot at staying at SS and would at least be a good defender at 3B. The speed is what really puts it over the top for me, as Walter just seems like he's going to end up as a horrible 2B that should be a 1B or even a DH by the time he hits 30.

While the pitchers are gone by Round 2, the outfielders I mentioned are still there, and we're going to take a shot at signing them. OF Nick Henriksen is 18, a high-schooler out of Iowa, of all places. Good contact, power, and eye, with a propensity to hit the ball in the air. No speed, and below average defense come with the bat skills.

D.J. Diaz, a high-school catcher, is our next pick. The defense will work, and he's got solid contact ability with power to go with it.

Henriksen signs a few days later.

June: 14-14
July (through 7/23): 6-11

While we were hovering around .500 for a bit, things fell apart in July. An injury to SP Joe Casten hurt, and then C Jon Hollet went down as well for a few weeks. On July 23rd, we're 43-56 and 19GB, so over this next week we'll see if there's a trade or two we can pull off to retool for next season.

And that's exactly what we do; now seems like a good a time as ever to cash in on CL John Delmer, who's tossed 52 innings with a 1.90 ERA. He's entering his expensive years in arbitration and estimated to earn over $7M next year. We package him with LF Matt Smith, who had a good year with us in 1947 but has fallen off and is struggling with a 68 wRC+ this year.

In return, we get 2B Bill Marek, a 23-year-old who was drafted last year in the second round by the Cleveland Buckeyes. He's an elite defender at 2B and can play SS well also. The bat should work as well, and it's always nice to have a left-handed bat up the middle in the infield. We also add two relievers from the minors, both left-handed arms.

Within the next week, we learn that SP Seth White will be out for the next seven weeks. Rather than use one of our trade allowances, we instead use one of those moves to claim RP Corey Morris, a 29-year-old RHP off of waivers from Detroit.

We end the season on a five game win streak, but it's only enough to save us from a 100-loss season. We finish 66-96. The World Series goes seven games again, and the Cleveland Buckeyes dethrone the Philadelphia Patriots dynasty. This is the Patriots 7th straight World Series appearance, but Cleveland comes out on top.

Before we head into the offseason, let's look at some of our top performers in 1949:

SP Joe Casten (7-8, 3.59 ERA, 3.1 WAR)

A target two offseasons ago, we managed to get Casten during free agency and he didn't disappoint. He made 26 starts, posting a 3.59 ERA with a 21.3 K% and a 6.9 BB%. The strikeouts are down a bit, and our scout definitely believes the stuff isn't as good as it was. But Casten is cheap for 1950 at $5.2M and has a team option that we can decline if he continues a downward trend.

SP Jose Alcantar (7-12, 4.11 ERA, 2.5 WAR)

Alcantar has been steady for us, but he took another step forward this year at age 32 from a WAR standpoint. He reduced his walk % from 9.2 to 6.4, but the strikeouts continue to decline as well. He's got two years of control left and won't command a huge sum in arbitration, so he's likely to stick around as a back-end rotation piece (or maybe even in the bullpen).

MR Jesus Guilfu (88.1 IP, 2.95 ERA, 26 K%)

Guilfu was a minor league signing back when we first came into the league, and has been really good since finding a permanent spot in the bullpen in 1947 with a 2.59 ERA, a 3.20 ERA in 1948, and a 2.95 ERA in 1949.

2B Bill Marek (.318/.368/.534, 155 wRC+, 1.1 WAR)

Marek was acquired at the trade deadline, and after 124 PA in AAA, we called him up. In 95 PA, he was great, although surely his .394 BABIP comes down back to Earth. Still, I'm excited about Marek in our infield in 1950.

OF Steve Gonzalez (.273/.367/.413, 121 wRC+, 3.4 WAR)

Gonzalez was the return in our trade that sent SP Joel Berryhill to Philadelphia. I think there's more here, as Gonzalez has an elite eye and ability to make contact to avoid K's. Still, he was very valuable for our offense and played in 156 games.

3B Adam Brand (.280/.343/.439, 119 wRC+, 2.3 WAR)

Brand was a great signing for us last offseason, contributing greatly on offense and finishing with 36 2B and 19 HR. While we thought he could contribute defensively at 3B, he was dreadful there, and will absolutely need to move off the position to play 1B in 1950.