State of the Landlubbers 2.5 years later

November 23, 2022, 07:32:29 AM

As I wrote 2.5 years ago the team was starting a season suffering from the world series loss the year before. Players were somehow not motivated to get back to it and management had to admit they could no longer hold together the strong team they had inherited. Very swift moves were made with the greatest of those being the trade of DeGrom for a good set of players and picks.

Admittedly, none of the mentioned players have made impacts on the team and the picks ran into a Covid issue and were pushed back to more recent drafts; none of them have had an impact yet.

One important trade that did not happen, despite offers and a clamoring on social media about inconsistency with the DeGrom move, was with Olson who has stayed on the team and put up a slugging percentage of .580 this year!

But the plan at the time was to build through the draft so the Landlubbers became a trashcan for people to throw bad contracts into with price of admittance being draft picks. Again, these plans have not played out yet ... yet!

What has played out? A few good/lucky moves I can highlight.

1. During the 2019 draft on the leadup to the demoralizing playoff loss, the landlubbers had drafted Dylan Carlson, 18th overall, who came in as a rookie this year to hold down Right Field, hit 17 HRs, and a .320 avg against LHP. Also worth a mention from the same draft was the 5th round pick of Michael King who played a role in this years world series (8 innings, 0 Hits).

2. The signing of 3 budget pitchers at the time who all pitched in this world series on their last contract year. $2.925 Kluber, $2.25M Gausman, $2M Urquidy. And one budget pitcher the following year in Sandoval at 750k. These guys have pushed each other to work hard and keep the "budget" rotation in tact throughout this run.

3. With the taken "bad contracts" falling off and the budget pitchers showing up to camp in good shape the Lubbers were in a position to buy any relief pitcher they wanted which paid off big. Could this be the first time the world series winner had more salary in the bullpen than the rotation? $4.95M Kenley Jansen (30 saves), $3.3M Tepera (20 holds), $2.75M Ryan Pressley, $1.75M Tyler wells (fittingly, all 4 pitched in the final game were we had a relief game after Javier starting with a short leash).

4. Not to be overshadowed but the 1 major infield signing of Crawford at $5.5M was important and the high paycheck only possible from the cap space from other decision.

So, in the end, after years of finishing second to Dan and the Kraken in the division and then disappointing in the playoffs the lubbers took a couple years off, managed only 70 wins each, came back to a new division darling in the Santa Ana Winds ... sigh... but are built, not on starting pitching this time, but with bats and relief pitching (well, usually, F'ing Jansen) and took the grand prize.

For the future?
As was implied, the last world series was the known end of a window making it a very disappointing and upsetting loss. Ironically, this win comes at what is believed to be the beginning of a new window. Lubbers still had $10M left in cap space, a little more dead money falling off this year, and all the rebuild drafted players yet to make the team. The starting rotation is a big question mark for next year but the GM has shown a good track record in getting value at SP.

- Lubbers beat writer
.......

I'd like to point out this being the first year where 3 teams have a run differential over 240 (oddly specific, if I go to run dif of 225 there are 2 seasons).

Thank you to the CO and everyone who have helped out in the league the last couple years. It has not been an easy time for fantasy leagues to stay together and engaged; I suffered some engagement issues myself. I have an idea of a way I can give back to the league and after I complete the proof of concept I'll reach out to see if the data I need is already accumulated somewhere

Re: State of the Landlubbers 2.5 years later

Reply #1 – November 23, 2022, 09:02:17 PM

Great recap. Amazing turnaround.

I have no idea what you have planned but if you need data we have all of the final databases. We should be able to get you whatever you need for research.

Re: State of the Landlubbers 2.5 years later

Reply #2 – December 02, 2022, 07:22:24 AM

Congrats again, Craig. I remember dealing with you before the season thinking you were still rebuilding. Great, great job managing a World Series winner.