SINCE YOU’RE GONE

What you been up to? We were named the General Manager of the Montreal Expos a few weeks ago, and thank you for asking.

The lords of analysis over at Baseball Prospectus set up mock Pizza Feeds/Winter Meetings in Chicago, Los Angeles and the BayArea over the past week.

The Chicago meetings were administered by Will Carroll and there were several injuries to report according to our acting commissioner in the BayArea, Gary Huckabay.

The ground rules were simple:

”The first 30 attendees to sign up were assigned a team in advance, and instructed to pore over their team's roster, look over the free-agent market, and come to the event prepared to wheel and deal. Each team was also given a firm budget number in advance that they could not exceed. The event began with each team announcing its list of non-tendered players, who then immediately went into the free-agent pile. All free agents were then represented by the remaining attendees…”

You can read about the Chicago chain of events from Rany Jazayerli by clicking the above hyperlink Courtesy of Baseball Prospectus.

Sound like fun?

Well it was more than fun.


"All the fun of sitting still, being quiet, writing down numbers, yes science has it all."


- Principal Seymour Skinner
So, what did we do for research?

We went blind. We scoured several different sources for information including BP.com, Baseball America, ESPN, MLB.com, minor league home pagee and team home pages. We even went to some of the player’s crude fan pages to look up information. We stumbled onto a new site Sports-Wired that offered a lto of obscure information and stats that normally isn’t found on the same website.

We created databases and started plotting charts and graphs and then we stopped.

If we were to be the Montreal Expos, we could not behave like other teams. We had a billion other issues other than baseball to consider.
We whipped out a Montreal Expos treatise.

The 2004 Montreal Expos:
A Treatise

The case before the Montreal Expos as of 9 December 2003 is to tread water. Tread water and attempt to sully any attempts to lose money hand over fist.


The issue at hand is to keep a economically viable commodity from expending too much energy in producing capital when it can just as easily not.


The objective, of course, is to sell the Montreal Expos off to a freshly minted billionaire or organization dying for a tax write off. Once the team is sold it will be relocated. Any attempts to make a name brand or the Expos in the Montreal area should be discontinued. Once the relocation is complete the team will undergo a name change, of the team, that is. Montreal will most likely remain Montreal.

The ‘once dreadful Expos’ tag will no longer be valid. The ‘essentially dreadful NEW TEAM NAME’ tag will apply.


The larger issues of re-location, the farm system and sellable product after 2004 are not concerns of the current administration in the least bit (wink-wink). Why waste time, money and resources discussing possible options when you really don’t need to? The new ownership will most likely dismiss all of the current employees and install their own network of minions.


However, in order to appear more attractive to prospective and knowledgeable buyers there are certain measures that need to be approached. The farm system should be loaded with as many prospects as possible. Because the team can not theoretically profit as a business organization as its current from of ownership stands – the goal must be to creatively gut the 40 man roster of any ‘talent’ with any trade value whatsoever and stock up on prospects for a future owner whenever possible.


With this in mind the 40-man roster should be stocked with instantly tradable players or players with a high ceiling and at a low cost; but offer a high return. Rent-a-player ‘types’ such as Kenny Lofton, John VanderWal, John Halama or John Mabry come to mind.


In order to fulfill this goal there is a general philosophical code to adhere to:


It’s not your problem for much longer, but it is still your problem.


The first step in the deforestation process is to follow the easiest course of action and garner a bevy of prospects while still being able to field a major league caliber team. The solution is to use the Expos as a traveling auction. Players, coaches and the manager should talk up the players as individuals rather than parts of the team. Once the individual is established it becomes easier for the rest of MLB to envision these players fitting snuggly on their 25 man rosters.


Once players are traded, it will become necessary to utilize free agency, the minor league system and independent leagues to plug in holes where and when needed.


However, the guise of a competitive team must remain. If need be, Frank Robinson will be fired in late April/early May if the team does not have a winning record as a smokescreen to the deforestation process. The Expos must have several minority candidates willing to take the position of manager of the Expos in a short amount of time, as it would cause incredible shame and disparity if MLB were to offer the job of managing a Major League Baseball team and having that minority candidate turn down the job offer.


In that vain, Omar Minya will be the first candidate considered for a new General Manager position with any other organization, should one open in the near future. While Minya’s efforts to date have been yeomen-like, he has failed to grasp the concept of current trade value versus innate long-term value.


Dave Stewart, currently a consultant with the San Diego Padres and Kim Ng with the Los Angeles Dodgers should be considered a possible tandem of General Manager and Assistant Manager once Omar Minya puts both hands on the box containing the remeninces of his office.


In order to achieve this furtherance of deforestation, it is necessary to sign many free agents at less than market value to one or two year minor league contracts. As Major League Baseball’s diseased, elderly aunt - the Expos organization can wait until just prior to Spring Training and pile several players into the back of a pick if need be. Anyone with 250 at bats or 50 innings pitched qualifies for a locker and a uniform.


The focus of developing players in the minor league system should absolutely continue. More attention and resources should be paid to those players on the cusp of AA as those players have a three-year window to the Big League team, when a new ownership group will be in place.


The Expos currently have the following six-year free agents to consider:


Pitchers:
Jose Colon
Bo Donaldson
Richie Lewis
Cristobal Rodriguez
Jose Rodriguez
Dustin Seale
Blake Stein
Catchers:
Scott Ackerman
Jason Brown
Edwards Guzman
Randy Knorr
Infielders:
Jeff Bailey
Ryan Balfe
Felix Diaz
Luis R. Figueroa
Vic Gutierrez
Bill Hall
Albenis Machado
Anthony Medrano
Joel Noboa
Luis Ortiz
Jake Thrower
Joe Vitiello
Outfielders:
Quincy Foster
Noah Hall
Jeremy Ware


Those in bold are worth re-signing. The rest can be used as fodder if need be.


Now that we have a general idea of who we can lose, let’s look at who we have under contract currently on the 40 man roster.

The 40 Man Roster

Salary	Player	B/T	Ht	Wt	DOB	Level/Position
Minimum	Hector Almonte	R/R	6-2	190	10/17/75	AAA/Pitcher
$3 million	Tony Armas	R/R	6-4	225	04/29/78	Starter
$350,000	Luis Ayala	R/R	6-2	170	01/12/78	Closer
Minimum	Chad Bentz	R/L	6-2	215	05/05/80	AAA/Pitcher
$2 million	Rocky Biddle	R/R	6-3	230	05/21/76	Reliever
Minimum	Randy Choate	L/L	6-2	195	09/05/75	LH Relief
Minimum	Roy Corcoran	R/R	5-10	170	05/11/80	AAA
$300,000	Chad Cordero	R/R	6-0	190	03/18/82	Reliever
$350,000	Zach Day	R/R	6-4	210	06/15/78	Starter
$1.3 million	Joey Eischen	L/L	6-0	215	05/25/70	Reliever
$6 million	Livan Hernandez	R/R	6-2	240	02/20/75	Starter
$4 million	Orlando Hernandez	R/R	6-2	220	10/11/69	Starter
Minimum	Shawn Hill	R/R	6-2	185	04/28/81	AAA
Minimum	Sun Woo Kim	R/R	6-1	185	09/04/77	AAA
Minimum	Julio Manon	R/R	6-0	200	06/10/73	AAA
$2 million	Tomo Ohka	R/R	6-1	180	03/18/76	Starter
Minimum	Britt Reames	R/R	5-10	180	08/19/73	Reliever
Minimum	Dan Smith	R/R	6-3	225	09/15/75	AAA
Minimum	Seung Song	R/R	6-1	190	06/29/80	AAA
$1 million	Scott Stewart	R/L	6-2	225	08/14/75	Set-up
$350,000	T.J. Tucker	R/R	6-3	265	08/20/78	Reliever
$350,000	Claudio Vargas	R/R	6-3	225	05/19/79	Starter
Salary	Player	B/T	Ht	Wt	DOB	Level/Position
$2.5 million	Michael Barrett	R/R	6-2	200	10/22/76	Catcher
$350,000	Brian Schneider	L/R	6-0	200	11/26/76	Back-up
Salary	Player	B/T	Ht	Wt	DOB	Level/Position
$5.5 million	Orlando Cabrera	R/R	5-9	180	11/02/74	Shortstop
$350,000	Jamey Carroll	R/R	5-9	175	02/18/74	3rd base
$300,000	Scott Hodges	L/R	6-0	190	12/26/78	Bench
$2 million	Nick Johnson	L/L	6-3	225	09/19/78	1st base
Minimum	John Labandeira	R/R	5-7	180	02/25/79	AAA
$1 million	Jose Macias	S/R	5-10	190	01/25/72	3rd base
$350,000	Henry Mateo	S/R	5-11	180	10/14/76	Bench
$7.75 million	Jose Vidro	S/R	5-11	195	08/27/74	2nd base
Salary	Player	B/T	Ht	Wt	DOB	Level/Position
Minimum	Peter Bergeron	L/R	6-0	190	11/09/77	Centerfield
$350,000	Ron Calloway	L/L	6-1	210	09/04/76	Bench
Minimum	Matt Cepicky	L/R	6-2	225	11/10/77	AAA
$350,000	Endy Chavez	L/L	5-9	170	02/07/78	Bench
Minimum	Val Pascucci	R/R	6-6	235	11/17/78	AAA
Minimum	Juan Rivera	R/R	6-2	170	07/03/78	AAA
$300,000	Terrmel Sledge	L/L	6-0	180	03/18/77	Rightfield
Minimum	Brandon Watson	L/R	6-1	170	09/30/81	AAA
$350,000	Brad Wilkerson	L/L	6-0	205	06/01/77	Leftfield