2016 MLB Expansion - Las Vegas

[LondonYankee]

May 2014

BNN News

With the 2014 season underway, major news broke from the league office:

Statement from commissioner Bud Selig 'After much discussion MLB has decided to expand to 32 teams for the 2016 season. We feel the time is right and will be seeking tenders from interested ownership groups. A decision will be made on the two chosen franchises at the end of this season.'

BNN understands there are six groups with legitimate interest in taking those two slots, they are:

Portland
Charlotte
New Orleans
Las Vegas
Montreal
Sacramento

[LondonYankee]

November 2014

BNN - MLB season round up

- St. Louis Cardinals beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-2 to take the World Series, winning title 13.
- Mike Trout took the AL MVP (finally) he hit 45HR, 133 RBI with a line of .333/.438/.659
- Tampa closer Jake McGee surprisingly took the Cy Young award, he had 41 saves at 1.53 ERA with 133 K's in 82.1 IP.
- Detroit 3B Nick Castellanos was AL's Rookie of the Year, hitting .290/.346/.433 with 15 HR and 84 RBI.
- Phillies LF Domonic Brown was the surprise MVP in the NL. He had 35 HR and 109 RBI at .325/.385/.574
- St. Louis' Adam Wainwright took the Cy Young with a 21-7 record and 2.18 ERA.
- The Cards also took the Rookie of the Year trophy, with OF Oscar Taveras taking the crown. He hit .302/.333/.463
- HoF inductees were two pitchers; 'The Big Unit' Randy Johnson and John Smoltz.
- Notable achievements this season: Albert Pujols hit HR #500; Miguel Cabrera and Adrian Beltre both reached #400; CC Sabathia reached 2500 K's while Tim Hudson, Jake Peavy and Johan Santana reached 2000. Johnathan Papelbon got save #300.
- Shelby Miller twirled a PERFECT GAME against Arizona on 05/21/14
- Tim Lincecum had a No No versus Cincinatti in June

BNN Breaking News -

Commissioner Bud Selig has today announced the two teams who will make up the league expansion for the 2016 season.
The first new franchise is the New Orleans Jazz. The Jazz will join the National League.
The second new franchise is the Las Vegas Blaze. The Blaze will join the American League.
Divisional alignment will be announced at the All-Star break in 2015.

[LondonYankee]

July 2015

BNN News

MLB have now announced that there will remain 3 divisions in each league once expansion takes place. The Central division in each league will go to 6 teams. For the National League this simply means that the New Orleans Jazz will be placed into the division. In the American League, the Las Vegas Blaze will join the Western Division with the Texas Rangers moving to the Central Division.
Play-off qualification remains unchanged at this stage with the 3 Division winners and 2 Wild Card teams from each league qualifying.

August 2015

Press release from Las Vegas Blaze owner Gavin Maloof:

'I am pleased to announce that we have made our first and most important appointment. Stuart Dubb will be GM of the Blaze and has already set to work setting up the franchise for the start of next season. We will provide Stuart and his chosen staff with the time and resources to make our ballclub a success. We know that won't happen overnight but we hope that Stuart can make an impact and set us on the right path.'

BNN Profile - Stuart Dubbb

'Dubb takes the role of GM with the Las Vegas Blaze at the age of 40. Dubb was born in London, England but has spent more than half his life in the US and has been involved in top level sports administration since graduating from M.I.T. 17 years ago. Dubb has had roles with NHL's LA Kings, MLS' LA Galaxy and New York Red Bulls before moving into baseball 6 years ago first with the Tampa Bay Rays and most recently Miami Marlins. He was Assistant GM on both clubs.'

[LondonYankee]

November 2015

BNN - MLB 2015 season round up

- St Louis Cardinals go back to back in the World Series. This time they bested the Chicago White Sox 4-2. The Cards have now won 3 of the last 5 World Series and have 4 appearances in that time.
- The AL MVP went to Kansas City's C Salvador Perez as he hit 35 HR, 117 RBI at .342/.379/.586
- The Yankees Masahiro Tanaka took the Cy Young with a record of 17-6 and 2.90 ERA.
- Baltimore 1B Christian Walker won the Rookie of the Year award for the AL. He hit 27 HR, 67 RBI at .270/.330/.507
- Miami OF Christian Yelich was the NL MVP with 21 HR, 61 RBI at .313/.381/.494
- Nationals starter Stephen Strasburg took the Cy Young with a 21-7 record at 2.52 ERA.
- Pittsburgh OF Jaff Decker won the Rookie of the Year with 25 HR, 90 RBI at .279/.381/.483
- HoF inductees, Ken Griffey Jr & Trevor Hoffman
- Notable achievements; Felix Hernandez and Justin Verlander both reached 2000 K's
- Baltimore 1B Chris Davis hit 52 HR, his 2nd 50+ season in the last 3
- Alex Meyer of the Twins had a No No versus Oakland in May.

Rule Changes:

- The All-Star game will no longer impact on home field advantage for the World Series
- NL owners have voted to introduce the DH rule

December 2015

A busy month ahead, especially for the new expansion teams. First up is the Rule 5 Draft, that will be followed by Free Agency filings and two days later the Expansion Draft.

Rule 5 Draft - Both expansion teams took advantage of the draft with New Orleans taking all 10 picks while Las Vegas took 6 players.

Free Agency

BNN ranks the top 10 Free Agents this off season:

1. Doug Fister 31yo SP
2. Chris Davis 29yo 1B
3. Justin Upton 28yo LF
4. Jordan Zimmerman 29yo SP
5. James Shields 33yo SP
6. Mat Latos 27yo SP
7. Jeff Samrdzija 30yo SP
8. Ben Zobrist 34yo 2B
9. Jason Heyward 26yo RF
10. Jhoulys Chacin 27yo SP

Next up the Expansion Draft

[LondonYankee]

December 2015

Expansion Draft

My strategy for this draft is to ignore the guys who are on big numbers already. There's generally a reason they aren't protected and I don't want to inherit problems. I'll be looking at picking up role players on either minor league or league minimum contracts for the most part.

Draft rules were set as: 25 players protected, auto protect less than 3 years service and max of 4 players per team drafted. Draft is set for 60 rounds.

Here are the first 19 rounds:

Round 1, Pick 1 - Las Vegas Blaze: SS Adeiny Hechavarria
Round 1, Pick 2 - New Orleans Jazz: SP Barret Loux

Round 2, Pick 31 - New Orleans Jazz: SP Nate Karns
Round 2, Pick 32 - Las Vegas Blaze: MR Jimmy Nelson

Round 3, Pick 1 - Las Vegas Blaze: CF Austin Wates
Round 3, Pick 2 - New Orleans Jazz: MR Mike Minor

Round 4, Pick 31 - New Orleans Jazz: SP Jeremy Hellickson
Round 4, Pick 32 - Las Vegas Blaze: SP Anthony Bass

Round 5, Pick 1 - Las Vegas Blaze: MR Mark Montgomery
Round 5, Pick 2 - New Orleans Jazz: 3B Matt Dominguez

Round 6, Pick 31 - New Orleans Jazz: RF Rico Noel
Round 6, Pick 32 - Las Vegas Blaze: SP Mike Kickham

Round 7, Pick 1 - Las Vegas Blaze: SP Kyle Gibson
Round 7, Pick 2 - New Orleans Jazz: SP Tanner Roark

Round 8, Pick 31 - New Orleans Jazz: SP Tom Koehler
Round 8, Pick 32 - Las Vegas Blaze: SS Christian Colon

Round 9, Pick 1 - Las Vegas Blaze: 2B DJ LeMahieu
Round 9, Pick 2 - New Orleans Jazz: 1B J.B. Shuck

Round 10, Pick 31 - New Orleans Jazz: MR Carlos Carrasco
Round 10, Pick 32 - Las Vegas Blaze: SP Seth Maness

Round 11, Pick 1 - Las Vegas Blaze: 3B Mike Olt
Round 11, Pick 2 - New Orleans Jazz: LF Tyler Holt

Round 12, Pick 31 - New Orleans Jazz: CF Engel Beltre
Round 12, Pick 32 - Las Vegas Blaze: MR Robbie Ross

Round 13, Pick 1 - Las Vegas Blaze: SP Felix Doubront
Round 13, Pick 2 - New Orleans Jazz: SP Josh Stinson

Round 14, Pick 31 - New Orleans Jazz: MR John Danks
Round 14, Pick 32 - Las Vegas Blaze: MR Kelvin Herrera

Round 15, Pick 1 - Las Vegas Blaze: MR Sean Doolittle
Round 15, Pick 2 - New Orleans Jazz: SP Jon Lester

Despite what I said before the draft my first pick, and the first overall, was Adeiny Hechavarria. The SS is earning $4m this coming year and then $5m, $6m in the next two. I don't believe he's a player who has issues and for such a key position I'll take my chances on him.

With the draft complete, I have a payroll of $38m, as opposed to New Orleans $115m. My plan now is to use the spare $$$ I have on picking up a couple of star free agents.

[LondonYankee]

December 2016 - Winter Meetings

An MLB GM rarely has time to rest, that goes double when you've got an expansion team to run.

Straight out of the expansion draft I saw that Boston MR/CL Joakim Soria was on the trading block. It was clear he'd fallen out with management at Boston. We were pleased to do business, sending one of our Rule 5 acquisitions the other way.



There's plenty of room in the budget for his contract, so this doesn't concern me.

Next I clinched a deal with the first of our free agent targets. Catcher is a key position on every team and therefore I was pleased to see a couple of top rank guys available. Negotiations with Alex Avila broke down when he refused to budge on his demands for $20m+ for 5 years. Matt Wieters however was more amenable:



Both the above deals were sealed just before the Winter Meetings kicked off. Once they had there was more to do. First up, moving on another Rule 5 acquisition:



I like the look of Tyler Collins, as does our scout Ramon Orozco and we hope he'll be able to contribute at the major league level straight away. Jeff Thompson probably has a year at most to show if he'll ever be good enough to make it to the bigs, while C Bryan Tejeda is young but full of potential.

Next up:



We have decent strength on the infield so Barney was surplus to requirements. Conversely we need help in the outfield and Winker is one of those that could contribute given the opportunity. SS Dilson Herrera shows a lot of promise and will be at AAA Plymouth and be given the chance to impress.

Then it was time to move on another Rule 5 draftee:



Wieters arrival and the expansion draft of Juan Centeno give us two catchers significantly better than Jhang. Both Cozens and Walding enter the minor league system and will look to prove their worth.

As the Winter Meetings draw to a close I'm continuing discussions with a few top level free agents. However contrary to rumor, one of those will not be Jason Heyward. As competition for his signature increased his demands spiralled out of what I deemed acceptable so we dropped out of that race. I hope to have news on the others soon. I'd like to have everyone in place by the end of January at the latest.

[Cole416]

Dang you must believe in Wieters. Hopefully that contract doesn't bite you in the (butt)

[LondonYankee]

Originally Posted by Cole416

Dang you must believe in Wieters. Hopefully that contract doesn't bite you in the (butt)

I like his defence and hope he'll be able to contribute with some big hits also. But yes it is a big deal for him.

[LondonYankee]

January 2016

Moving into the new year and no rest. More negotiations on an almost daily basis as I try to hook two big fish.

First up, the power for my line-up. The Palms Ballpark of Las Vegas is a hitters park, particularly favouring left handers. Who better then to star in our first season than a man who's hit 147 jacks in the last 3 seasons:



Next up another trade, designed to add talent to our minors:



Bostick was ranked #178 last year and I expect that to improve come spring.

February 2016

I'd hoped to have everyone signed by now but some deals take a bit longer to work through. I hope this one is worth the wait, and bucks. Our ace this year will be:



Not sure I agree he'll make us immediate playoff contenders, thats some sort of dreamland but I do feel he'll add quality to our pitching line up.

[LondonYankee]

2016 Spring Training

We had a decent Spring going 11-17:



Our batting stats for Spring (sorted by total bases):



Our pitching stats (sorted by WHIP):



The pre-season predictions are in:

AL



No surprise in how we're predicted to finish, I'd take that.

NL



Also the prospect and farm ratings are in:



I'm pleased with that ranking and also pleased that my predicted rise for Chris Bostick was spot on. SS Paulino and SP Berrios were both Rule 5 acquisitions so will be with the big league club all year. Bostick starts the year at AA Wauseon Cavemen, while Herrera will be at AAA Plymouth Yellow Jackets.

[LondonYankee]

Opening Day 2016

So before we get things under way here are my line-ups, rotation and bullpen.

Line up

Lead off: LF Estarlin Martinez
2nd: SS Adeiny Hechavarria
3rd: 1B Matt Snyder
4th: DH: Chris Davis
5th: 2B DJ LeMahieu
6th: C Matt Wieters
7th: 3B: Mike Olt
8th: LF Tyler Collins
9th: CF Austin Wates

Other options: IF Jed Gyorko; C Juan Centeno; SS Dorsyss Paulino; OF Nomar Mazara

Rotation

Mat Latos
Mike Kickham
Felix Doubront
Anthony Bass
Jose Berrios

Bullpen

CL Joakim Soria
SU Sean Doolittle
SU Kelvin Herrera
MR Nick Christiani
MR Jimmy Nelson
MR Robbie Ross
MR Mike Mikolas

Our first opponents will be the New York Yankees, we visit The Stadium for a 3 game series. Mat Latos will face last years Cy Young winner Masahiro Tanaka to get us underway.

[baseballonly]

I don't get any of your big FA moves. You expect to finish in last place, but you sign guys who are starting to decline.

[Mike45]

Originally Posted by baseballonly

I don't get any of your big FA moves. You expect to finish in last place, but you sign guys who are starting to decline.

Me either personally...seems like you are toeing both sides of the line. I don't want to spend alot of money/get younger guys without contracts. But let me tie up nearly 350m dollars in 3 players for the next 5-6 years. Davis might be worth it, but thats alot of money to pay a catcher who has hit .250 the last few years and a SP with a winning % of .500.

But I am liking this dynasty so consider me one of the skeptical Blaze fans for the time being as I follow along

[Brananorama]

Cool to see Jose Berrios in your rotation. He could be a definite force.

[LondonYankee]

Originally Posted by baseballonly

I don't get any of your big FA moves. You expect to finish in last place, but you sign guys who are starting to decline.

Expecting to finish last place, doesn't mean I can't give it a go.

Originally Posted by Mike45

Me either personally...seems like you are toeing both sides of the line. I don't want to spend alot of money/get younger guys without contracts. But let me tie up nearly 350m dollars in 3 players for the next 5-6 years. Davis might be worth it, but thats alot of money to pay a catcher who has hit .250 the last few years and a SP with a winning % of .500.

But I am liking this dynasty so consider me one of the skeptical Blaze fans for the time being as I follow along

I guess you're right I am toeing both sides of the line. I also feel that as a new franchise, especially one based in Vegas a couple of big names are expected. Thanks for following.

Originally Posted by Brananorama

Cool to see Jose Berrios in your rotation. He could be a definite force.

I very much hope so. Our scout doesn't have the highest of hopes for him but OSA rate him higher so I'm hoping he'll exceed our scouts expectations.

[LondonYankee]

April 2016 Review



Not the worst start to life in the majors. Our first game was at the Yankees. We kept it close for 5 innings before the Yanks got 6 and went on to win 9-3. Next game DJ LeMahieu of all people hit the Blaze's first ever homer as we won our first game. As you can see Davis has already started crushing balls out of the park, hopefully that continues.



What this graphic shows is that our hitting is ok but our pitching and defense sucks. Austin Wates, Matt Snyder and Adeiny Hechavarria have started well. Matt Wieters has not, and to make it worse he's not even doing well defensively.
Mat Latos has mostly been unlucky in his starts but he still needs to step it up. Kickham has performed above expectations so far while Jose Berrios has been woeful. I may look at moving Berrios to the bullpen, Robbie Ross or Jimmy Nelson could enter the rotation.

After our first series in New York I clinched a free agent signing to fill a gap in our bullpen, that of closer:



Notes

- As above, DJ LeMahieu hits first HR for Las Vegas @NYY, in the same game Mike Kickham took the first ever win in franchise history.
- 04/13-04/15 Las Vegas took the first series win @MIN (2-1)
- 04/13 Mike Kickham had the first 10+ K game for the Blaze, with 12 (@MIN)
- 04/16 First ever homegame for the Blaze at The Palms Las Vegas Ballpark, ending in a 10th inning loss to the White Sox
- 04/23-04/25 Blaze take the first series sweep in history (3-0 v OAK)

[LondonYankee]

May 2016 Review



Our first winning month, going 15-13. We're 11 GB from the Angels at the top of the AL West. Interestingly though we're only 2.5 GB from a wild card spot. It's early days of course so I shouldn't get excited.



The rotation has improved somewhat while Bobby Parnell has added quality to our bullpen. Matt Snyder is doing his best to keep pace with Chris Davis with the long balls. Matt Wieters still looks lost. This is a big concern and I'm going to up the number of games that Juan Centeno gets.

Early in May, Joakim Soria complained that he was no longer the closer (he only had the job for a week!) and that I should show him the respect he deserves. I couldn't put up with his whining for long and triggered this trade:



Chicago were looking for a one-for-one deal Soria for Johnson. I wanted to get Griffin Helms added to the deal. Doing so cost me a couple of marginal SP talents. 3B Johnson is 27 so is approaching the time when he's got to deliver, I'll place him at AAA Plymouth and see what he's got.

[LondonYankee]

June 2016 Review

First order of business this month was the amateur draft. We had the first pick and our scouting had pointed to an underwhelming draft pool overall but with a couple of stand out players. The top player according to our scouts was SS O'Neal Lochridge out of Occidental college at 18 years old. Lochridge was slated as a hard signing for us but I pushed the button on drafting him anyway. In the 2nd round we took RF Brendon Davis. Our 3rd round pick was SS Cole Stobbe. The rest of the draft was unremarkable and the chances of any of them being anywhere near a big league contract ever are slim to none.

It didn't take us long to come to agreement with Lochridge and the other two guys signed on soon after. Here's a look at Lochridge:



Back to the majors and I found another MR still lingering in free agency who I thought could help out in our bullpen:



Chavez goes straight to the bullpen and Mike Mikolas is optioned to AAA Plymouth.
2 days later on his first outing for us, Chavez got injured and will miss 4-5 months. Mikolas returned immediately.



We had another winning month. 16-11 this time, we're 7.5 GB from the dominant Angels and are now 1.5 GB from the wild card slot.



DJ LeMahieu also joined the DL this month. Nick Noonan was called up from AAA and has started well, he's clearly looking to prove he belongs at major league level. Matt Wieters has improved with the bat, but lets be honest he couldn't have got worse.

I'm pleased to note that AAA Plymouth and AA Wauseon are both leading their leagues. This bodes well for the near future.

[LondonYankee]

July 2016 Review

Leading up to the All-Star game and trade deadline I had a few moves I wanted to make.

First up a 3 way trade:




Jenrry Mejia never once looked like he was going to earn any of his $1.9m salary so he was moved on. Getting Bour allowed me to then get Coulter. I needed Coulter in place because my catching team needs an overhaul. Speaking of which:



The Wieters signing was a mistake. There, I said it. I knew he wasn't going to be a consistent hitter but I figured he'd make up for it with solid D. He never did.
Swihart comes in as the starter but Coulter will get a fair shout and a good number of games.

All-Star game

CL Bobby Parnell was selected as Las Vegas' representative at the All-Star game, making his first trip to the mid-summer classic.
The NL went on to win the game, 8-6 with Bryce Harper the star man, hitting 2 HR.

Leading up to the Trade deadline I made another move, this one aimed more at my minor leagues, for now:



We like the look of DeMichele and hope he'll be able to contribute next year. He'll get a chance in September call-ups providing he does well at AAA Plymouth in the meantime. C Griffin Helms wasn't one I'd ideally wanted to move on but sometimes you have to pay more than you want.

Another piece of business this month, extending Bobby Parnell's stay in Vegas with a $3m 1 year deal. He's been outstanding and I'd hate to lose him.

Standings end of July:



Our best month yet, 19-7. We sit 2nd still in the AL West, 4.5 GB from the Angels. But more significantly we've moved into the lead in the Wild Card race, with New York 1.5GB.



Mat Latos has been on fire recently and the bullpen have also helped out big time.
Offensively both Chris Davis and Matt Snyder have found the jacks drying up in recent weeks. Hopefully they'll get back on track soon.

Also this month, Dorsyss Paulino earned the Rookie of the Month award in the AL. He hit .538 with 5 HR and 14 RBI.
Talking of rookies:

[LondonYankee]

August 2016 Review



Our first losing month since April, 10-18. Nevertheless we sit in a Wild Card spot, although things are tight.



Felix Doubront has lost 10 decisions in a row, therefore he's been dropped into the bullpen. Jose Berrios has taken his place in the rotation, though he hasn't done any better, yet.

Other news



Kirby was our 8th round pick in this years amateur draft. I'm disappointed to see him violate the anti-drug policy.