Atlanta Braves attend the FanSided Faux Winter Meetings
This post discusses a simulation of the Winter Meetings. Any signings or trades mentioned for the faux Atlanta Braves happened only between FanSided writers acting as GMs. The event started slowly, but a couple of early moves paid off.
The commissioner for this simulation – Colby Patnode from SoDo MoJo – and the player agent – our own Alan Carpenter – manage the event every year. They established rules team must follow to get their simulated deals approved. Without getting into minutia, the idea is realism.
Rebuilding teams should act like rebuilding teams; teams had to establish a general payroll bogie that matched their team’s history and stated goals; not a hard-and-fast number, but the general area of expected expenditure to start next season.
I set the limit for the faux Atlanta Braves at $142M. Competitive balance tax rules applied; if your teams said the goal is staying under $208M for 2020, teams must factor that into their plans.
Free-agent bidding began Monday with an open period for each bid and rules to prevent sniping. The meeting simulation officially opened this morning, but many teams discussed and agreed on deals prior to that.
Free agent bids are pure AAV bids, no options, no deferrals, no incentives and no limitations on trades or bonuses. [As Alan put it in the rules]: if you offer $100 million over 5 years, it’s a straight-up $20m per year. Not (sic) gonna mess with any 18/19/20/21/22 math.
When in doubt, the commissioner makes the final decision. With that administrivia out of the way, here’s what I did early on for the faux Atlanta Braves.
Atlanta Braves Simulated addition of a catcher
On the first day of discussions, I contacted the Indian’s sim-GM and negotiated a simulated deal sending A.J. Minter, Jeremy Walker, and Huascar Ynoa to the tribe for Roberto Perez.
Baseball Prospectus ranked Perez Baseball’s (This may be behind a paywall) number two defensive catcher in 2019 with a Catcher Defensive Adjustment (CDAA) of 25.6. CDA is their new name for adjusted fielding runs above average and a lot easier to say.
He ranked third in Called Strikes Above Average (CSAA) formerly called framing runs, first in Errant Pitches Above Average (EPAA) or blocking runs and threw out 29 of 49 base stealers.
I like Perez back in 2015 because he defended well and looked like he’d hit at least league average for a catcher. Last season he batted .239/.321/.452/.774 and 24 homers, finishing with 98 wRC+ and a .326 wOBA. I don’t expect him to repeat that, but I do expect league average catcher performance.
Related Story. Catching up on the real world . . .. light
I prefer my best offense behind the pitcher and the best defense I can find in front of the pitcher. I acquired Perez in the simulation because of his defense, and his handling of a young rotation in Cleveland over the last two years. His defense makes the pitchers better, and better pitchers make the team better.
From experience in past simulations, I knew the feeding frenzy of an auction would drive the price for Yasmani Grandal beyond my projection of his future worth. Catchers take a heck of a beating behind the plate, and as they age, injury and the nature of the position causes their bat to decline.
Grandal’s deal in the simulation finished with four years and $88M. Perez earns $3.5M this year and has two team-option years of $5M and $7.5M.
Simulated third base acquisition
I tried to formulate a mock deal for Starling Marte and made what I considered a fair offer based on the team’s simulated ask. Marte is 31 with two years of control, and the Pirates simulated GM asked for a Major League-ready pitcher and a catcher.
Initially, I offered Touki Toussaint. John Ryan Murphy and Alex Jackson. He said he was intrigued by the offer but had much better offers from the Phillies and Mets simulated GMs. I took that to mean a second pitcher, but the trade looked like becoming a blind bidding contest, and I moved on. He received four minor league prospects from the Phillies and sent the $2M.
I tried hard to get the Marlins to talk about a simulated deal for Brian Anderson. I made two offers, but they refused to deal without being blown away. I decided I was out of wind, and contact the Royals sim-GM about Hunter Dozier, he rebuffed a well above value offer and an invitation to tell me what he wanted.
I discussed Eduardo Escobar with the Diamondbacks, but the simulated GM wanted Ender Inciarte, and at the time, I still lacked an outfielder to back up in center field if I moved Inciarte.
I believed the Josh Donaldson bidding war would escalate, so I stayed out of it and placed a two-year $13M simulated bid for Didi Gregorius to play third. That looked like being the answer until I saw my offers for TOR starters vanish into idiocy; more on that another time. This morning the Donaldson bidding seemed stuck at a simulated two years and $40M. I used the freed-up cash to bid four years and 88M
I felt pretty safe at that level; then, the other bidder tried to sneak in-front at the wire. I had one chance to bid, and even then, he could counter, but I wanted JD at this point and offered a simulated four years at $25M and won.