Opening Day is upon the Outlaws
Just 365 days ago, Flagstaff GM Greg Newgard was sitting at his desk anxiously preparing for the 2018 season dreaming of a trophy, a big trophy. Today, he sits at the same desk, anxiously preparing for the 2019 season and dreaming of that same trophy.
“Part of that dream is looking back on what was,” Newgard said wistfully, “but the other is looking ahead and trying to find a path to get right back there. 2014 was our first trip to the World Series and we were excited to get back and were a little miffed it ended up taking four years. Now, we sit here in that same spot, but hoping for another quick turnaround.”
After deciding to revamp and tear down the roster and rebuild, the Outlaws took the first step, potentially adding a few solid pieces to go with their solid core of youth that is entering their prime.
“We added a few long-term deals in Simmons and Pressly, because we had confidence that we could add them to low salaries of the likes of Judge, Goldy, and Springer,” Newgard proclaimed. “Simmons shores up what has been a weak spot for us historically at short. We believe in Pressly’s short-term value enough to have spent money on to land him and have in the back-end of our bullpen for awhile.
“Then you try and supplement that with more cheap up-and-coming youth like Clint Frazier, Keibert Ruiz, and Michael Kopech and we feel like we are building toward a serious run in 2021.”
When the annual BDBL Press Season Preview article is released, most fans take a look to see what the experts think about their team, with the caveat that it’s all speculation anyway. But for Newgard, it’s always good to see when the experts see what you are doing and have a similar frame of mind.
There are too many stars on this roster, and the Outlaws will not lose 90-100 games this year as they rebuild for 2020.
This pitching staff is better than it appears at first glance, and the offense will carry this team to victory — maybe even more often than not. If Flagstaff finishes at .500 or above, it wouldn’t shock me.
Prediction: 3rd place.
“It’s sort of validation, I guess, not that it matters much,” Newgard shrugged. “We think going in that we have a 75 to 80 win team, if the plan for the starting rotation works out decently. We’re going to have to shuffle in about 10-11 arms in those spots because we don’t have arms like [Zack] Greinke or [Chris] Sale to make 37 to 38 starts for us now.”