The Mogul Chronicles: Season 1, Chapter 2: 2005 Marlins

So, yesterday I started premiered the Mogul Chronicles by beginning to see if things went differently whether a team would be able to build upon their year of glory. The maiden voyage started with the post-2003 Florida Marlins. The Marlins followed up their title in this universe with an 82-80 record, 1 win short of their real life equivalent......and now your 2005 "bizarro" Florida Marlins

1-Kenny Lofton CF

2-Luis Castillo 2B

3-Eric Hinske 3B

4-Miguel Cabrera LF

5-Hee Seop Choi 1B

6-Ramon Hernandez C

7-Chris Aguila RF

8-Jose Vizcaino SS

Bench:

Ryan Jorgensen

Damian Easley

Josh Willingham

Dan Uggla

Sean Burroughs

Abraham Nunez

Had some extra budget in the off-season and spent some money towards upgrading the line-up. The Bench is still fairly weak but more interesting. Willingham and Uggla will get their first extended looks and we get to see what they are made of on the bizarro Marlins.

Pitchers:

1- Josh Beckett

2-Carl Pavano

3-Dontrelle Willis

4-Brad Penny

5-Ricky Nolasco

Bullpen:

Armando Benitez-Closer

Rafael Soriano-Set Up

Chad Fox-Short Relief

Scott Schoenweis-Short Relief

Michael Tejera-Middle Relief

Josh Johnson-Long Relief

April 18: Josh Beckett out two weeks with lower strained back

Another year, another Josh Beckett injury. Not off to quickest start (1-0 4.00 era,4.72 DICE) but still not an easy loss. Overall, things are looking reasonably good as the Marlins are off to a 6-4 start.

May 18:

22-16 2 GB, Tied For Wild Card

Things looking pretty good. 38 games in the post-season is still a reality.

May 31: Brad Penny out 125 days with severe elbow tendinitis

Not an easy loss to absorb. There were high expectations for Penny but instead his season is pretty much done. Not the best season 2-1 4.79 era....but even that is attributed to bad luck as his DiCE was 3.73. Well, there's always '06. Gives Ricky Nolasco a second chance in the rotation and to bounce back from a rough couple of months.

On a general note, the back end of May didn't go so hot as the Marlins slip to 25-24 falling 4 1/2 back in east and 2 in wild card.

June 4: Kenny Lofton out 25 days with ankle stress fracture

Lofton was signed to solidify the lead off spot and has done just that to tune of 303-4-17 .358/.452. For now, lead off spot is downgraded to Luis Castillo as the Marlins struggle to stay above .500 (27-26)

June 12: Eric Hinske out 172 days with torn ankle ligament

Second time in less than two weeks a free agent acquisition from previous winter is lost to injury. His production of .296/.367/.509 will be missed and will make it easier for opposing teams to pitch around Miguel Cabrera. Sean Burroughs gets a chance to show that he is capable of being more than a throw in to the Pierre-Hernandez trade. 32-28 4 GB NL East, 1 GB Wild Card.

July 4: Miguel Cabrera out 26 Days with Wrist Stress Fracture

Things had been going so good in June only for the worst case scenario to occur on the 4th of July. The Fightin Fish are going to come together and at least tread water without their anchor of Cabrera for four weeks. His .331/.418/.582 production not being in the line-up is a huge blow to this team. Josh Willingham gets a chance to prove himself in Cabrera's place. 45-35 1.5 GB NL East, Leads Wild Card by 1 game.

July 26: A.J. Burnett out 16 days with Strained Knee

Despite the losses to the lineup (Hinske and Cabrera) the Marlins are steam-rolling through July. Not only have the Marlins taken the NL East lead, they have opened up a comfortable 6 game lead. Burnett has had bad luck this year going 6-6 with a 6.30 era (3.95 DiCE)

July 27: Chris Aguila out 16 days with foot stress fracture

Another day, another injury. Aguila has had a rough year, if the Marlins can survive Cabrera's injury i'm sure they should survive this injury.

August 7: Dontrelle Willis out 18 days with sprained finger

Willis has another mediocre year (7-8 4.93 era interrupted by injury). The division lead is up to 7 games and the rotation now has two rookies (Scott Olsen and Jason Vargas) back-ending it.

August 26: Jose Vizcaino out 17 days with sprained knee

The third free agent acquisition to get injured this year. He's been a non factor offensive .222/.279/.269. I'm definitely glad he only got signed to a one year deal. Rookie Josh Wilson gets his first crack at the big leagues due to the injury. Division lead is at 6 games.

September 14: Ricky Nolasco out 17 days with foot stress fracture

An already thin starting rotation loses another starter. A disappointing season (4-10 5.36 era gets even worse). Division lead is down to 4 1/2

October 3: Jose Vizcaino out 106 days with torn knee ligament

And thus his stint with the bizarro Marlins comes to an end. At this point, just finishing out the schedule until the playoffs.

October 6:

The Marlins may be at 7 years and counting for the playoffs since making the playoffs in real life, but in this Mogul Universe it only took a couple of seasons. The bizarro Marlins end the season at 90-72 (7 games better than their real life equivalent).

NLDS vs Cardinals:

Marlins lose in 4 games to the Cards. The post-season may have been a disappointment but this virtual team gained some post-season experience and showed that they are capable of being amongst the elites in the league.

Milestones:

June 18: Luis Castillo- 300th career steal

The closest to a remarkable moment of a fairly ordinary season .283-1-44.

All Stars:

Miguel Cabrera .308/22/98

Carl Pavano 15-9 3.63 era

Rafael Soriano 7-5 2.04 era 4 saves

Cabrera had a strong year and finally got recognized as an All-Star. Pavano had a solid season and picking up Soriano to serve in the set-up role looked to be a very smart move. All 3 were first time All-Stars

Best Hitter: Miguel Cabrera

Surprise: Sean Burroughs .324-3-47

Buzz Kill: Jose Vizcaino .210-1-38

Best Pitcher: Carl Pavano

Surprise: Josh Johnson 8-4 3.14 era

Buzz Kill: Ricky Nolasco 4-10 5.36 era

Burroughs stepped up to fill the void at third after Hinske went down for the year. Vizcaino was the one free agent aquisation that did not work as planned.

Josh Johnson made his debut as a 21-year old and showed a glimpse of the future. Nolasco followed up his strong rookie audition by enduring a pretty nasty sophomore slump. Till next time.......PLAY BALL

The Mogul Chronicles: Season 1, Chapter 1: 2004 Marlins

We start off this experiment adventure to see if the Florida Marlins would have been able to maintain their high level of play after upsetting the Yankees in the 2003 World Series. Why? Because, that's why. The chronically cash-strapped Marlins beating up the team that bought a World Series title. That and the last game is fresh on my mind since the game replay was on MLB Network last night.

Disclaimer: The game settings are set, to slightly tweak from reality and to give a bit of a more level playing field. I set the options to equalize cities to control the difficulty a little bit. Game simulations will be in one month intervals or when a player gets injured for 14 + days (whichever one comes first)

2004 Florida Marlins Real Life Record: 83-79

Organization Rankings:

Farm System (2nd)

Scouting (1oth)

Medical (14th)

Salary (20th)

Starting Lineup:

1-Juan Pierre- CF

2-Luis Castillo- 2B

3-Mike Lowell-3B

4-Miguel Cabrera-LF

5-Jeff Conine-1B

6-Mike Redmond-C

7-Alex Gonzalez-SS

8-Chris Aguila-RF

Bench:

Ramon Castro

Wil Cordero

Abraham Nunez

Damion Easley

Lenny Harris

Pretty light offensively. Pierre and Castillo are players who would be more useful if they ever made it legal to steal first. Conine is a bit over the hill. Mike Redmond is great against Tom Glavine, not so much against everyone else. That is more than you can say about Gonzales and Aguila. If these bizarro-Marlins have any hope of contending, Lowell and Cabrera will need to step up. The Bench leaves a lot to be desired.

Pitching Staff

Starting Rotation:

1-Josh Beckett

2-Brad Penny

3-Carl Pavano

4-Dontrelle Willis

5-A.J. Burnett

Not bad....not bad at all. With the pedestrian offense, the rotation needs to justify the hype.

Bullpen:

Closer- Armando Benitez

Set Up- Chad Fox

Short Relief- Toby Borland

Short Relief- Matt Lindstrom

Middle Relief- Michael Tejera

Long Relief- Darren Oliver

Nothing to write home about. This team only goes as far as the rotation, Cabrera and Lowell takes them........now time for some games.

May 1:

Record 12-10

2nd place 2 GB of Atlanta

1 GB Houston and Milwaukee for Wild Card

Trade:

Juan Pierre to Padres for Ramon Hernandez and Sean Burroughs

It looks like there isn't enough room for two light hitters in my line-up. Juan Pierre moves cross-country. For now, there is a downgrade at center field to Abraham Nunez. Ramon Hernandez is an upgrade at catcher for the Marlins. He's 27, has more pop in his bat than Redmond and gives some protection in the 5-spot behind Cabrera. Sean Burroughs is 23, a young but unproven talent at this point. Since third is already accounted for with Mike Lowell, his role for the Marlins is to strengthen the bench.

May 31:

27-23 3 GB Atlanta, 3rd Place

2 GB Philadelphia for Wild Card

May wasn't great, May wasn't terrible. May was more about treading water than anything else. Ramon Hernandez had a hot start for the Marlins and a big part of the Marlins keeping pace in May (.402/.444/.707). Thus far Burroughs (4 for 17) has been a non-factor.

June 1: Amateur Draft

1-Billy Butler-1B

2-Chuck Dawson-P

3-Pedro Encina-P

4-Stew Porter-P

5-Jaime Alfinec-CF

6-Share Kregar-RF

Pretty uninspiring except for Butler, not expecting too much out of this crop.

June 5: Josh Beckett goes down for two weeks with a dislocated shoulder.

Definitely a set-back for this team. Beckett followed up his epic 2003 post-season by starting 6-2 2.82 era.

29-25

3rd place 2 1/2 behind Atlanta

2 GB Cincinnati Wild Card

June 20: Toby Borland out 26 Days with Ankle Stress Fracture

He may not have a higher profile than Beckett and expectations are lower for him than Beckett, but Borland has had a positive impact on the bullpen thus far. He has been 2-0 with 2.73 era in 27 games (most games he's pitched in a season since 1996)

Record 36-31

3rd place 5 1/2 GB Philadelphia

5 1/2 behind Cincinnati for Wild Card

June has been unkind to this team, they are slowly losing their grip on the season and they need to get hot soon to be in the post-season discussion.

July 20:

Record 47-45

4th place 6 1/2 GB Philadelphia

8 GB Houston for Wild Card

Good News: The Marlins went a month without any injuries

Bad News: The Marlins treaded water losing a game in the NL East (plus a drop from 3rd to 4th). Also, the Wild Card is more or less a pipe dream as they are 8 games out of the Wild Card.

August 8:

Armando Benitez out 22 Days with chipped Knee Cap

A bigger loss on paper than in reality. He is 5-6 3.08 era on the season but this is a bit misleading. He has blown a ghastly 8 saves and when you factor out defense he has a DICE almost twice as high at 5.90. Chad Fox takes over closer duties while Benitez is out, if Fox does well enough, Benitez could become trade bait

55-55 5th place 12 GB Philadelphia

6 1/2 Behind Atlanta for Wild Card

110 games into their title defense, the Marlins find themselves in dead last. In all fairness, the NL East has been pretty tough. On the bright side, they have chipped away at the wild card by getting to within 6 1/2 of the Wild Card. There is still hope, just not much.

August 20: Alex Gonzales out two weeks with sprained kneck

Adequate defender, offensively inept. .254/.293/.352. It's a good thing his contract is off the books after '04. Mike Mordecai takes over temporarily

62-58 4th place 10 1/2 GB

5 GB of Wild Card

September looks to be interesting, let's see how this unravels.

September 3: Jeff Conine out 17 days with Pulled Groin

Conine is up there in years (38) but still a capable player to the tune of .275/.336/.436 with 14 Homers and 67 RBIs. Wil Cordero .229/.282/.346 takes over for now. Cordero needs to improve like two months ago.

67-67 4th place 10 GB

8 1/2 GB of Wild Card

Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping, into the future............

September 7: Brad Penny out 45 Days with dislocated hip

Brad Penny's season ends here (barring a miracle run). Even in this bizarro universe win-loss records are useless. Despite a 3.80 era and 3.20 DICE and nearly a 3:1 K/BB rate, he had little run support and a 9-13 record. Time for Penny to recover for the injury, can't wait to see him contribute in '05. In the meantime, 21-year old Ricky Nolasco gets an extended audition in the rotation.

October 6:

Record 82-80 4th place 9 GB Philadelphia

6 1/2 GB San Francisco for Wild Card

Well, the first season has come and gone. So far, this parallel universe is close to reflecting reality (one more win IRL) has the Marlins showing that they at least can compete.

Milestones:

Armando Benitez 200th Save (May 1)

Miguel Cabrera 22-Game Hitting Streak (June 7)

Miguel Cabrera 23-Game Hitting Streak (September 1)

Luckily for Benitez, the don't track blown saves mile stones (he had 10). Cabrera began to show his potential by going on a couple extended hot-streaks. Despite not being an All-Star, Cabrera celebrated his 21st to the tune of .286/.362/.514 and 35 homers.

All-Stars:

Ramon Hernandez: 2nd All-Star .298-15-63 .356/.440

Hernandez came over from San Diego in the Juan Pierre trade. Carried a hot start in Florida to become the Marlins lone All-Star Representative.

Best Hitter: Miguel Cabrera

Surprise: Chris Agulia .292-9-55 .345/.420

Disappointment: Mike Lowell .269-15-80 .336/.424

Best Pitcher: Josh Beckett 13-6 3.07 era

Surprise: Ricky Nolasco 2-2 1.96 era 2 saves

Disappointment: Dontrelle Willis 10-14 4.35 era

Cabrera followed up the strong promise of his rookie year by showing he was the real deal. Agulia seemed nothing more than filler at the bottom of the line-up. I expected nothing out of him but he proved he could play. Lowell wasn't that bad but considering how thin the Marlins offense was, he was expected to step up bigger than he ded.

Beckett lost time to injury but still had a strong year. Nolasco made his debut in '04. He pitched well out of the bullpen and showed that he has a bright future in this league. Like Lowell, Willis wasn't bad per se but considering his strong rookie year, expectations were much higher than reality for the Marlins.

Well, that ends the pilot episode of this series, hopefully this idea works out. If not, at least I gave it a shot

Trying something new: Using Baseball Mogul to revise History--Why am I doing this?

Alright, so we have a couple months till baseball season starts. The Super Bowl is two weeks away. The NBA is the NBA, wake me in April. Normally on Monday's I have been doing the NBA Preview. The last couple days i've reflected on the stuff I have posted on here in the several months since I started this blog. The one thing that's stuck out to me is i've felt a lot better about the baseball-oriented stuff i've done than the NFL/NBA stuff. I feel ok about most of the NFL stuff but i'm not too happy with the basketball stuff I wrote.

In other words, i've got to come up with a way to fill space for a couple months. One thing about me is i'm a HUGE fan of the Baseball Mogul series. For those of you unfamiliar with Baseball Mogul, it is Fantasy Baseball on LSD/Speed/Crack, etc. You get to be GM of any baseball team from 1901 to the present and tweak things as much as possible.

The concept I have for this is to take a team that had their potential for greatness cut short for one reason or another and see if the success could have been maintained if things happened differently.