State of the Sluggers : pre-draft

The Sluggers scraped into the playoffs last year, but not without cost. In total, 11 players were killed on the field last year. A poorly equipped medical staff saw super-strength blitzers Dominic Toretto and Dion Jordan lose their innate toughness and, err, life respectively, in late season games, and MB-guard blitzer George Connor and block-guard lino Cedric Pittman also shuffled off their mortal coil in the final few weeks.

That left the core of the team as vamp superstar blitzer Slugg Jr, ogre Lenny, star catcher/emergency blitzer Kenny Stills, specialist hurler Roy Moore, defensive catcher Justin Gilbert and ott-er Cordarelle Patterson, plus hulking lino Arik Armstead and dirty fouler Alfred Morris. These will be the only eight Sluggers from the playoff team of Season 6 to return for Season 7.

Offseason Plans:

Sluggers had three objectives this offseason -
1) Fill gaps
2) Get POMBer/refresh blitzers
3) Get ready for Season 8
By the end of Season 7, Sluggers were getting CASed in droves, and drives were routinely starting with losing two or three in turn 1. A big component was the number of no-skill linos being thrown into the fire. Coming into the year with 6 rookies (2 blitzers, a thrower and 3 linos) but only four picks we’d have to use some picks to get more than one player. The Sluggers’ plan was to go dumpster-diving in restructure sales (bringing in 5 players for two currents and a future). The blitzer core was two rookies, a permed st4 and Slugg, and the Sluggers coach had never played in the POMB era, so we went looking for a low cost high impact toy to play around with and some new skillable talent. Finally, we didn’t want to lose any picks from Draft 8 (in the end, we spent a future 4th).


New additions
https://fumbbl.com/p/team?team_id=900166

Juqua Parker- the marquee trade. Banged up but still great (6328POMB Guard Frenzy Stand Firm), he cost the current 1st of the Sluggers (with a 3rd coming back). Guard was crucial, as the Sluggers look to be woefully short of this crucial skill coming into the season.
Tony Gonzales – Sluggers traded up into the 1st round using a future 2nd and a current 3rd to get Gonzales, a +AV dodge/ss/dt blitzer who can contribute defensively and was a top 15 pick on the original draft board. Spending the future 2nd was a risk but the hope is the extra armour keeps Gonzalez around to Season 8 and beyond.
T.J. Yeldon - with the second last pick of the 2nd, another Sluggers top 15 target, blitzer Yeldon (+AG/Dodge/Surehands) was still available. Ignoring the clear problems with the draft board he’d prepared, the representative selected Yeldon anyway, reasoning that an ag4 carrying blitzer might rack up the SPPs in Season 7 to be a real force in Season 8.
John Nesser – the logjam the Yeldon pick created was solved by a trade that returned a future 2nd and Nesser, at the cost of a beloved Sluggers icon and a block lino. Nesser – block/wrestle/tackle with 40 spps – is a defensive minded lino who at a pinch can act as a sweeper, protect flashier colleagues, but also is close to his next development point.
Akili Smith – From the Universe restructure sale, a 16 SPP block/leader thrower that will likely cover special teams plays and occasional late game action.
Eric Kush – another that came over from the Universe, this block/fend lino has survived two seasons on the line of scrimmage. Can he survive a third?
Moose Vasko – Moose joined for a future 4th from the Crimson Cascade, a –ma Wrestle/Fend lino who will join Kush staring down the bloodthirsty animals across the white chalk. Well, for at least a game.
Matt Peake – Peake joined for a current 4th in the Marauders firesale. Wrestle/kick lino who can kick (when dirty player Morris has been sent off) or soak up hits as necessary.

Leaving

Dominic Toretto –Forced out by the sudden rush of high quality blitzer targers, 7437 blodge surehands Toretto was on his way to superstar status before a midseason injury left him more fragile. Sluggers management considered that protecting him this year was not a good long-term solution, and thus he was the odd man out. In Kemperbad, he will hopefully flourish.
George Coghill – LoS warrior who joins Dominic in the trade to the Knights, he is close to developing yet further.

We hardly knew ye

These two players came and went without ever donning a uniform.
Jared Smith – ma5 guard grab lino went to the Grizzlies for a future 2nd plus some bits and pieces that would become Yeldon. Sluggers will miss the guard, tho.
Karlos Williams – 8337 blodge mb blitzer picked up for a few spots in r3 in the Marauders fire sale. Brought in as insurance in case of draft picks not working out, before the Sluggers realised the price of blitzers was not that high.


State of the Sluggers : post-draft

Well, we have our full roster - two LoS linos to join the ogre, two more skilled linos, leader thrower and full blitzer contingent. There were a few missteps (Williams may have only cost three or four places, but had Yeldon been snapped up that could have been costly), and I still wonder about the Jared Smith deal and whether considering the price of linos I should have stayed put. That said, I think the lineup is better than I had first feared coming into this season, and – for the cost of only a future 4th – I think I have a better shot at keeping key players alive. It isn’t the step change needed to compete with the Gunners, but hopefully should lead to some fun games.