1968 Off Season
Ed Brinkman gets $92K in arbitration. Don Arlich gets $145K. Don't know that I want to pay either of those guys that much money.
We have a lot of decisions to make this off season. Javier, Robinson & McCovey are all in the last years of their contracts and McCovey and Javier want a lot of cash. We have a lot of good prospects about ready to play in the majors so we have to figure something out here.
Jesus, this is gonna be super hard to sort out. Robinson has declined some the past few years so I'm not beholden to keeping him. I looked all over though and there is nobody we can get that I'm comfortable replacing him with. We sign him to 4 year deal worth $57K which is only a $17K raise, not that bad. I gotta live with it.
OF Johnny Briggs is an immense talent ready to play in the majors, problem is we would have to move Callison or Yaz. I can't get much for Callison but I can get almost $700K for Briggs. Arghhh. I take the Red Sox offer of $130K for Callison. Rock and a hard place there.
Don Arlich and two decent pitching prospects net me $202K from the White Sox. I didn't want to move Arlich, I really didn't, but my starting depth is strong. I am robbing Peter to pay Paul at this point.
I'm able to get McCovey to come down to $475K per year for 7 years. I sign Brinkman for 7 years at $72K despite his bad offensive season last year. His defense is so damn good and I believe he'll hit just fine going forward, he's also only 25.
We get $133K from the Mets for 3 prospects I really have no use for, CF Jarvis Tatum, 3B Kevin Collins & 2B Tom Ragland.
We get $131K from the Angels for 3 2nd level pitching prospects who are a couple of years away, Dave Wallace, Gerry Pirtle & Roric Harrison.
We trade for middling catcher Hawk Taylor to improve our 3rd catcher spot and save some cash in the deal.
We get $76K from the Tigers for 3B Ron Santo, this opens a bench spot for Rod Carew.
Julian Javier pisses me off in contract talks, he keeps wanting more money. Dickhead. We sign him to a 5 year deal at $285K.
Well that was an off season and a half. Mercy.
Very unsure of this team. Lazar looks like the real deal and should be fine, as should the rest of our staff. I'm a bit worried about our pen though their stats don't give me reason to be.
Even with all the moves we've made we still have some quality depth and young arms in the minors so that's good.
Briggs is our new right fielder, though Piniella will play against lefties, and Carew joins the bench. We should still be every bit as strong offensively and we have a number of good prospects on the cusp of being major league ready so depth isn't an issue.
Our finances are not great. Connie Mack stadium is antiquated. We have to hold on a few more years till the Vet is ready. We have $1.1M in cash but are about $600K over budget. Just take it year by year and try and keep our heads above water I guess.