AL North Questions and Answers

	Offense				Defense				Pitching
Category	Stat	Rank		Category	Stat	Rank		Category	Stat	Rank
Avg.	.271	12th		Fielding %	.977	29th		ERA	4.70	23rd
Home Runs	273	2nd		Double Plays	386	11th		Strike Outs	1079	19th
Runs	880	5th		+ Plays	31	31st		OAV	.271	22nd
Steals	51	32nd		- Plays	57	30th		Saves	47	11th

You won the World Series in Season 3 here but then the last two seasons you've gone 80-82. What led to winning it all and then under .500 the next season?

Pitching and injuries. Solid rotation broke down with injuries and bullpen has been brutal. Probably should have held onto the two SP's i dealt a few seasons back but I needed a bat.

You've currently got two world series titles to your name, both team with similiar records (97-65 and 96-66). What was similiar with these teams and what was different? Which world series was more enjoying?

My first WS was far more rewarding. I came back from 3-0 to win games 4-7.

You are one of the more active traders in this world compared to the other teams I've looked at so far. Is trading one of the more enjoyable aspects of the game for you? What allows you to make more trades than usually here in NCAA II?

I enjoy working a good deal but I have found that it is becoming more difficult to trade for prospects. Everyone wants them.

	Offense				Defense				Pitching
Category	Stat	Rank		Category	Stat	Rank		Category	Stat	Rank
Avg.	.275	8th		Fielding %	.984	15th		ERA	4.39	15th
Home Runs	251	6th		Double Plays	411	4th		Strike Outs	1007	29th
Runs	851	7th		+ Plays	69	11th		OAV	.261	13th
Steals	130	16th		- Plays	37	17th		Saves	49	8th

	Offense				Defense				Pitching
Category	Stat	Rank		Category	Stat	Rank		Category	Stat	Rank
Avg.	.278	4th		Fielding %	.986	7th		ERA	3.97	5th
Home Runs	211	11th		Double Plays	444	1st		Strike Outs	1040	26th
Runs	864	6th		+ Plays	96	2nd		OAV	.245	2nd
Steals	129	17th		- Plays	20	3rd		Saves	55	3rd

Season 4 you finished with 80 wins, last season in Season 5 you managed 106 wins. What led to such a big increase in your win total?
Well a couple of factors played into our much improved season 5. Last year I realized we had become complacent as a front office and thought we could continue to win the division with the talent we had which cost us in season 4. All of the other great GM's in the AL East made changes to their rosters and we didn't change much which was a mistake. So last year we made a decision to sign some Type A ball players and once again become the leaders of the AL East. We greatly improved our offense as well which took some pressure of our pitching staff. I think signing Bryan Buchanan to be our signal caller behind the plate was the biggest Free Agent get in the whole league. He is a great game caller and made our whole pitching staff better as the season went on, not to mention his tremendous skill set at the plate as well. We also called up our first draft pick ever in Jimmie Butler. With the addition of those two in our lineup, opposing pitchers could no longer pitch around a single hitter. Each person can be very dangerous at the plate. We had three players hit over 30 Home Runs and almost had three guys with over 100 RBIs. Anytime you have that much production at the plate, you are bound to win more games.

You've made the playoffs 4 out of the 5 seasons in this world, what do you contribute your success to?
A significant amount of luck! When you start in a new world you have no idea what kind of hand your going to be dealt. I was very lucky to have some decent players in the system like Maroth and Nix which have become huge reasons for our success. We were also lucky to land the #12 spot in the draft which we used to get Butler who I hope will both retire and enter the HOF as a Knight.

Two things that I do think help was thinking about the long term success of the team as well as making sure that I made the moves needed in the first season to win right away as well. I spent alot of money in that first season on coaching because I knew these guys where going to need to grow and develop, even those who were already on the ML roster and older I thought would gain a little bump from good coaching. I also knew that I needed to trade away some of my prospects and quality players to fill holes in the roster that I was given. That is why you saw me trade for the likes Watterson and Fitzgerald. I needed those higher quality bats in the lineup and figured that would be where most of my offense would come from. I also over spent in FA on a top pitcher like Tatis so I had that one work horse for the first couple of seasons until I could bring Nix and others up to help him.

Currently you have 3 active teams, all in hop's worlds. What's the draw for you in playing in these worlds instead of others?

Couple of reason come to mind. First, Hop is first class all the way!! He treats all coaches with respect and holds each one of us to the same standards whether we have been involved in one of his worlds for 2 seasons or 12 seasons. Hop is very organized and runs these worlds like a machine as we start almost immediately every time which is great. He will take time to answer your questions and help you improve as a coach. Because of this, all three of these worlds are very competitive and he makes sure he finds great coaches to talk to on the boards and make deals with instead of just finding a warm body to run a team like some other commishs do in HBD.

	Offense				Defense				Pitching
Category	Stat	Rank		Category	Stat	Rank		Category	Stat	Rank
Avg.	.279	4th		Fielding %	.982	23rd		ERA	4.48	18th
Home Runs	199	15th		Double Plays	302	32nd		Strike Outs	1117	8th
Runs	816	13th		+ Plays	56	17th		OAV	.267	17th
Steals	131	15th		- Plays	48	26th		Saves	44	14th