Part one of Jeremy’s rebuilding effort in a long-term carryover league.

Howdy friends out there on the Internets! Sorry it is has been a while, but life sometimes gets in the way of baseball. Shocking as that may be to many…

Anyway, I was asked to talk about rebuilding a franchise and this is because I have done just that in my longtime AL-only carryover league. This is a league that I have won four times since its 1994 inception and finished in the top five every season. Since we expanded to 12 teams a few years ago, it has become more of a challenge to stay on top – especially since we require the top 3 teams to take massive cuts after the season.

So after 2006, I finished a distant fifth and saw that my team wasn’t getting any younger. In addition, in this league if you have a free agent leave the AL in real life, you lose the player and get a comp pick in the offseason supplemental draft. It usually equates to a B level prospect or a retread major leaguer. I had several pending free agents, including a good portion of my already shaky pitching staff. I will go step by step with each move made and how it has resulted.

1 – Traded a 4th rd pick for Bernie Williams. Small move, but it was clear Bernie was either going to be a Yankee or retired. I could use some decent OF at-bats and at worst, the comp round is before the 4th rd. I used the comp pick for Wes Littleton (released during the season to make room for Cameron Maybin acquisition)

2 – Traded comp pick for Ambiorix Burgos and Jason Michaels – the other team was giving away the players for roster space. I thought that Michaels would either give about 250 decent at-bats (and we have AB and IP requirements) or could be a trade chip, and that Burgos had a nice live arm and the KC closer situation was still unclear. As it turns out, I kept Michaels and Burgos was dealt to New York for Brian Bannister. I would make a later move on Bannister that I regret.

3 – Lost Adam Eaton to Free Agency. No huge loss, but this started the departure of my pitching and led me to decide to rebuild. I would take Kelly Shoppach with the comp pick and am very pleased with that now.

4 – Lost Adam Kennedy to Free Agency. Also, not a huge loss. My 2B is Ian Kinsler, but this left me a gap at middle infield. I have since acquired during the season Tony Pena Jr. and Danny Richar to fill that role. I wound up trading this comp pick later on.

5 – Lost Brad Radke to Retirement. That’s two SP down, although this one was expected. I traded for Radke during the 2006 season – gave up a bit too much to tell the truth – in a last ditch effort to make a run that never happened. I also traded this comp pick later on, but ironically was able to pick up the player taken during the season when the other guy cut him (Jeff Weaver – who I had drafted long ago when he was on Detroit).

6 – Lost Burgos for Bannister. More on that later.

7 – Lost Ted Lilly to Free Agency – Now I am starting to panic more than Britney Spears’ publicist. That is three SP down. I managed to keep Vicente Padilla at the same time, and we all know how well that worked out. About as well as Nashville worked out for FOX. I took Jeff Fiorentino with this pick, and he didn’t even make my Opening Day roster (25 players, 15 reserves).

8 – Lost Randy Johnson for Luis Vizcaino, Ross Ohlendorf, Steven Jackson and Alberto Gonzalez. It was now that I decided to rebuild for good. Four starting pitchers is impossible to replace successfully in this kind of league. Johnson was not great for me – and I gave up quite a bit to get him in the first place, including my top pick in 2008 – but this return was small, at least for MLB talent. Vizcaino would be a middle reliever at best – barely valuable in Roto. And the three kids were solid – but only Ohlendorf had a true pedigree for Roto. I would trade Vizcaino shortly thereafter and Ohlendorf during the season (in a tragic trade for Chris Ray) and the other two would be cut as well (Gonzalez in my Opening Day roster trimming and Jackson to make room for Richar).

9 – Lose Jerome Williams to Free Agency – Now this is getting insulting – five SP gone. Of course, I had a better chance of getting a better season out of Jerome from The Time. I used this comp pick on Tyler Lumsden, who had an awful season.

I made ten trades in my rebuilding effort, which I will discuss in my next post. So keep reading!

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