Hold My Log - 56.04 - The Moves

[7teen]

The Lumberjacks entered the 2056 off-season with a bunch of money to spend on free agency. In seasons past, when GM Chris Wilson has money to spend, he goes after the big fishes, blows his wad on them, finds the team still struggling for a winning record and is then handcuffed with extravagant contracts he can't get rid of. While the team still went out and signed [urlhttps://statspl.us/brewster/reports/news/html/players/player_53297.html]Pedro Rosales[/url] to a large deal to be the team's CF this season, Wilson has showed some restraint on the other moves the club has made.

"I've made a lot of mistakes in years past" admits Wilson. "I've gone out and gotten the big free agent bat who can only play corner outfield or 1B or DH. I've learned in recent years, those guys are pretty much a dime a dozen. Hell, there are still some of those guys on the free agent block as we speak. In fact, outside of, you know, centerfield, catcher, shortstop, and starting pitching, you can get pretty much anything you want in free agency if you just wait a bit. I'm not a patient man. But I waited some this year."

The waiting game has landed Portland some nice pieces that will both help the team in 2056 but won't break the team's financial budget in future seasons. Here is a quick break down of the team's moves thus far:

SP Christian Burgos, 1 year, $5 million, 1.3 WAR last season
1B/DH Andrew Gallagher, 1 year, $3.8 million, DNP last season, 2.0 WAR in 2054
SP Ken Sproul, 1 year, $3.4 million, 2.5 WAR last season
RF Aires Penharanda, 2 year (TO in year 2), $3.0 million, 0.4 WAR in 2055, 3.1 WAR in 2054
P Michael Kalil, 1 year, $2.8 million, DNP last season, 1.4 WAR in 2054
LF Fuad Demirel, 1 year, $2.0 million, 1.4 WAR last season
P Francisco Franco, 1 year, $1.8 million, 0.8 WAR last season
P Zack Davis, 1 year, $1.4 million, 0.9 WAR last season
P Matt McCartney, 1 year, $1.3 million, 0.2 WAR last season
P Javier De Jesus, 1 year, $1.2 million, 0.6 WAR last season

And then just this past week, the club inked 3B Rhys Brickell to a 1 year, $4 million deal to take over at 3B. Brickell put up a 1.7 WAR last season with Nashville and a whopping 6.0 WAR just 2 seasons ago with Omaha.

"Hey, we'll see how it works out" added Wilson. "Until we can get a few of the prospects we have in the farm now ready and then draft some more future help, fans may have to get used to seeing new names and new faces on the regular in Portland right now. Sometimes collecting these guys spurs something that bonds them and makes a team a winner. None of these guys were wanted anywhere else. Hell, two of them didn't even play last season. Who knows, maybe over the course of 162 games they can gel together and build themselves into a contending team."

Offensively, Penharanda and Demirel have paid dividends, posting 1.0 and 0.7 WAR in a short span. Penharanda has hit 8 homeruns in just 19 contests with Portland while Demirel has hit 6. both are hitting over .300 in the early going. Franco has led the way amongst the new arms, posting a 0.64 ERA and 0.71 WHIP in his first 14 innings of work out of the pen.

[trmmilwwi]

Franco is having a decent year. Great to see.