The first big move this offseason was the arb signing of
. This secures a buildign block 1B for one more year and was the only arb-eligible player returning.
The next move was a trade witht he Norfolk Something or other. We sent top prospect
and ML backup 1B
out to norfolk for one of the best fielders in Hunter SS
, a ridculous power hitting pospect catcher
, and very good young reliever
.
The second trade we made was with the Chicago Fire. This trade sent Major league bat
, young 3B
, and prospect LF
to Chicago and gave us solid ML Starter
and future Closer
.
When Free agency hit we had alot of free money to spend and were in a perfect position to go after type A Free Agents. We would not lose or first round selection. So we went after the only player that was worth it. After being outbid a couple times we went big, real big, $86 Million in five years big, and signed superstar
. This adds a player that can play anywhere and bring alot of power to our lineup. He won his ring last season at New York and will hopefully help us gett there.
We needed alot of help in the bullpen so we also signed proven relievers
and
.
Cairo had a pretty sucessful year after coming over from Las Vegas. As a backup for Moraga, he used his speed and contact to score 46 runs for us this season.
Moraga had another allstar year in New Orleans, finishing the season with 17 Homers, 68 RBI's and a .317 average. He is now hit more homers and batted in more runs then any one in franchise history!
Rhodes was moved up to the majors after hitting .315 in 31 games in AAA. Once he was up he still produced great numbers at the plate, key stat .912 OPS.
Manzanillo underachived this year. After coming over from New York at the begining of the season he was supposed to be a MVP candidate. Instead he dropped 35 points in batting average. He is still young and has upside.
Beamon is currently an MVP candidate! He had a great allstar and silverslugger season, playing in every single game, and logging majors best 206 hits, 38 homers, 109 RBI's, a .321 batting average, .953 OPS and in the field led all 2B in putouts, and plus plays.
Flores filled in at Centerfield and second basemen throughout the season, and got enough at-bats in part-time work to break the franchise single season record in stolen bases.
Hill filled in mostly as a backup this season.
R5 draftee Sodowsky stayed in the majors all season.
Highly touted rook, Abernathy, played 3B this season instead of his normal SS. He had a horrible year hitting only a .228 batting average. But he shows signs of progression from his 19 homers.
R5 rookie Martin started all year as our shortstop due to his great glove. Needs some work with the stick.
Delgado had a down year after moving to leftfield this season.
Carr added a vet bat to our club this season.
James provided a great outfield glove and stayed away from softomore slump.
In his first full year in the Majors, Gonzales showed he deserves to be in the Show. He had 110 hits as a backup and had a .351 onbase percentage and stole 20 bags.
In order to compete this season and reach our rebuilding goals the ownership needed to bring in some talent. This is why we made 6 trades and 2 major free agent signings early in the year to build the franchise up.
Our major free agent signings of 13-year vet slugger
Horace Carr and 9-year vet starting pitcher
Brendan Kerr gave us two players on the diamond with some major league experience.
But our trades helped build our future.
Trade 1) Our first spot we needed to sure up was the infield, to do that we sent the Washington D.C. Generals our mid-rotation pitcher Grover Chase for Buzz Abernathy. Abernathy is a young slugger that scouts say have the ablilty to play an average shortstop or above average third base.
Trade 2) A three team deal: To Louisville Sluggers Matt Pulsipher and to the Jacksonville VelociRaptors Theo Mailman , Ron Williams, and $2.9 Million from NO. And we recieved prospect Starting Pitchers Gregory Hatcher and Cookie Encarnacion along with ML backup catcher Andres Cairo and prospect INF Carlos Castillo.
Trade 3) New York Metropolitans recieved Peter King for Future Building Block CF Carl Livingstone and a young almost ML ready Jonathan Alexander
Trade 4) We had to let Bryan Norton a prospect we were high on go to Syracuse Coureurs Des Bois in order to recieve a starter with 10 ML years of expirence Mel Bush
Trade 5) Was our biggest blockbuster of the season, We sent last season top draft pick Merv Kinney and ML ready 23-year-old arm Felix Jang to the New York Metropolitans and we recieved Building Block MVP runnerup Emil Manzanillo, Prospect slugger Billy Butler, and speed demon Jeffrey Flores
Trade 6) We let longtime New Orleans slugging 3B Billy Ray McCartin go to St. Louis Brew Masters where he can start and we recieved interesting prospect Miguel Acevedo
As the new ownership took over of the New Orleans Creole Crawfish at the begining of seaosn 13 in the the whatifsports.com HDB world Hunter, there was alot of climbing to do to reach the level of perrenial National League South division leader San Juan RtRTA. In the last three down years in New Orleans, under former owner Krushers, the franchise still had some building blocks left over from playoff teams in seasons 8 and 9. Those were
Morega has been to the All-Star game 6 times, and earned 3 SilverSlugger awards.
Beamon has been to 4 total allstar games and won 2 SilverSluggers and 1 GoldGlove award.
and
Kondou will be at the top of the rotation for the 9th year in a row.
