Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Sentinal Sitdown - Spirsakr

Season 7 marked the year that spisakr made his debut in Hometown taking over the Boise franchise and relocating them to Minnesota. The franchise has had great success in Hometown, they have never won a World Series but 4 division titles in 5 years set the bar pretty high. However when spisakr took over he had to deal with the emergence of the Toronto FivT's. Finishing second in both of his years in Hometown little else could have been expected. It appears that Minnesota has gone into a bit of a rebuild mode as last year he made many of his older assets available. With a Pittsburgh team on the rise and with Toronto looking good well... Forever, the rebuild in Minnesota is likely the best decision. The young talent is clearly there for Minnesota. Rico Johnson and Magglio Marquez both look to be no doubters in Hometown, both players were IFAs and it could be that they are ready to bust out in Season 9. Johnson hit 273. with 20 HR in 462 AB last season and Marquez hit 272 with 17 HR in 537 AB. Both players figure to be cornerstones for the franchise that could be rebuilding to maybe just retooling. Upon closer look at the team has 7 29 year olds as well as 6 players who are UFA's at the end of this season. Minnesota could be a major offseason player depending on Spisakr's plan. I think its safe to predict that Toronto will be the odds on favourite to win the AL East for years to come, but can Minnesota challenge them. Are they going to rebuild or retool to try to knock Toronto off the mantle? We'd like to welcome Spisakr to the Sentinal Sitdown and thanks again for joining us today.

Q. Hey Spisakr thanks for joining us on the Sentinal Sitdown today. First question, Have you enjoyed your time in Hometown thus far?Yes, it has been good. There was a bit of drama last year, but nothing I have not seen in previous years.

Q. Right now if you had to predict your teams final record what would it be?88-74, second wild card spot.

Q. Entering season 7 your team was very competitive as you finished the year with a 93-69 record. It wasn't good enough to make the playoffs but with that record and not making the playoffs did that change your mind on how you were going to compete in Hometown?I had looked this team over and decided regardless of the level of success the team achieved, I was going to be making changes. The team was good, but they were old and they were overpaid. I probably could have significantly increased payroll and competed for the championship in season 8, but that would have screwed the team over even more so in the future. I think, though, I was pretty successful in making my team younger while still remaining in competition. I've still got a couple shitty contracts on team (anyone interested in Red Payton), but the team has 95% of the talent I started with, but is seven years younger.

Q. Overall If you classified your plan would you be Rebuilding or Retooling. (The difference of course being a major rebuild or essentially making some moves and trying to competitive this year or the next)Definitely retooling, my payroll remains pretty high, as I went out and got a couple $5 million a year SP.

Q. The future does look bringt for you though, how excited are you about Rico Johnson and Magglio Marquez. They're young, they're cheap, they play key positions. They're not superstars, but they both figure to have long Major League careers; especially Johnson.

Q. With 7 29 year olds, some aging players and 6 UFA's at the end of the season, without ruining any of your secrets what can you tell me about your offseason plans?Get better. I am still less than comfortable with my rotation, so I will probably budget enough to try to sign a top of the rotation starter.

Q. Looking through your minors you've already done an excellent job of drafting like Claude Payton, how important is the draft to you or do you value the trade market more?My previous world series winners have been built almost equally between drafting and trades, with free agent acquisitions almost non existent. However, the draft is probably more important for me, as many of my trades were me trading draft surplus for areas of need.

Q. You don't have to be a genius to see that Toronto is good and will remain good. Your a smart owner with World Series titles under his belt in other leagues, What do you have to do beat Toronto?I think it would be time to cash in those free automatic wins that you get for bringing home the trophy. But in all seriousness, I'm not sure I could ever hope to acquire the level of talent gman has, and I can only wonder how it happened. However, he didn't even reach the World Series last year, so he is far from unbeatable. I think all I can do is try to reach the playoffs, and let the randomness that is the 5 and 7 game series do its work.

Q. Your predictions for this year's Hometown World Series?Minnesota Mudcats vs. Cheyenne SandorsMudcats in 4 :)

The Regular Questions
Whats your name? Ryan Spisak
How old are you? 18
Fav Real Player? Ivan Rodriguez, or Ian Kinsler
Fav Real Team? Texas Rangers
Franchise Model? I've got to think that all GM's both present and future, both real and fake aspire to run their team like Branch Rickey ran the Cardinals, Dodgers, and Pirates.