Rough Flight: Year Two Mid-Season (Charlotte Aviators)

New Flight, Jones signs with Aviators.

After we narrowly avoided 100 wins during our expansion year (2018), I made the moves that I felt were necessary to move us in the right direction... or so I thought.

We only had room for $24 million in our budget for this upcoming 2019 season, so automatically we can forget going for the likes of a Clayton Kershaw and Paul Goldschmidt.

Instead we made four offers, and none of the signings were that of a superstar... Here was the following signings...

• CF - Adam Jones - 2 yrs / $14 million ($7 m annually)
• SP - Jason Hammel - 3 yrs / $13.2 million ($4.4 m annually) - with vesting option on his 3rd season (2021).
• RP - Justin Wilson - 2 yrs / $14 million - $6 m for 1st season, with a player option on his 2020 Season ($8 million). 
• 2B - DJ LeMahieu - 3 yrs / $17 million ($5 m / $6 m / $6 million player option in 2021). 

It's been no secret that Adam Jones has been declining in performance, but we felt signing him would bring a much-needed veteran presence with the young Aviators, he also still has a cannon of an arm (70 out of 80), I felt this was a much-needed upgrade from Tyler Collins & Jake Smolinski splitting time in center. I moved Taylor Motter to full-time rightfielder, so that we can get some playing time at third base for Michael Chavis (who I acquired in the 2017 Rule 5 Draft in December 2017) -- in which he will be platooning with Yadiel Rivera. 

Jones from the get-go, proved to worth the signing, I was a little bummed that I found Charlie Blackmon signing (with the Pittsburgh Pirates) for much cheaper than he originally demanded.. he was the other option for potential CF. 

Jones is currently hitting .300 with 22 HR & 57 RBI through 82 games, while on pace for 42 HR this season, while producing a .895 OPS, his best season since 2013 so safe to say, he's actually been a steal for us... Meanwhile, Blackmon (for Pittsburgh) is only batting .229 with 11 HR & 27 RBI (.726 OPS). 

Jason Hammel is a cheap option to add to the rotation, so adding him him may not be someone spectacular, at the same time for $4.4 million, is not horrible either... or so I thought. Sure he's eating up 6-7 innings per game, and has stayed healthy, but while sporting a 5.84 ERA & 1.51 WHIP.

Tropeano was a 2018 A.L. All-Star with 16 wins for the Los Angeles Angels.

We traded for Nick Tropeano of the Los Angeles Angels, who was coming off a 16-5 season with a 3.13 ERA & 144 K (1.24 WHIP) in 175.1 innings -- in which we shipped SP-Nick Kingham, SS-Daniel Robertson, RP-Brad Peacock & catching prospect Ihan Bernal. Tropeano had a few great starts for us, then went on the disabled list for a couple weeks, and has been not as good, as he currently has a 2-6 record, 4.50 ERA, 62 K & 1.36 WHIP through 72 innings & 13 starts.

We can't seem to catch a break, our stud of a leftfielder in Koson Yamauchi (.305, 4 HR & 10 RBI in 22 games) has been out for about 2+ months, due to bone chips in his elbow, and is finally returning in a week or so, when suddenly Mike Clevinger (0-5, 3.32 ERA) will be out for 6 weeks due to shoulder inflammation. We sent down Adam Plutko to the minors, hoping that Brady Rodgers (2-4, 6.14 ERA) may do something different in his rotation spot.... nope! Cody Anderson is the team's all-time wins leader so far, with 13 wins in 1.5 seasons, while he posted a 5.32 ERA last season & is doing even worse with a 5.76 ERA.

Chrinos looked lost before his demotion to the minors.

One of our only rays of hope in 2018 in pitcher Yonny Chirinos, was a total disappointment through his first 19.1 innings of relief work (6.05 ERA) -- We just called him up (July 4th) after he has done well at Triple-A for the Montesano Ocelots (6-2, 1.81 ERA in 49.2 innings). 

We thought after drafting three Rule 5 Draftees in December 2017, that in 2018 we would go much lighter, but we decided to sign two more Rule 5 Draft Picks in Hunter Strickland and J.B. Wendelken... Hunter has done well, J.B. so far, no good. I would like to keep Wendelken, but we'll see how long he can test my patience, plenty of upside, but to keep a guy on the big league roster all season long with a 7.30 ERA may be stretching it. 

By the way, our 2018 stud in designated hitter Renato Nunez, who hit .286 with 37 HR & 124 RBI last season, is nowhere to be found with his .216, 14 HR & 34 RBI. Shortstop Abiatal Avelino has been going in the wrong direction, after what looked like a breakout year in 2018, while my third base combo is roughly batting .200 this season.

Problems everywhere!

The team was projected to win 77 games this season, improving 14 games from 63-99... instead, we are going almost 14 games in the opposite direction with a 26-59 record (.306 winning pct) on pace for 50 wins total, which my owner is not happy as it is.

Coming up.... Switching gears with latest BoS News, APBA face-to-face tournaments & other OOTP projects.